Daimler’s been conducting field tests for the C2X system since at least 2006, but they’re about ot embark in the largest ever field trial in the Rhine-Main region of Germany. They’re outfitting at least 120 network-linked vehicles with the technology. With this system, the cars (and thus the drivers) can be alerted of upcoming traffic hazards way ahead of time, allowing them to divert their routes accordingly. Similarly, the system can find the best route to your destination based on real-time traffic data, as well as find the parking lot that appears to have the most available spots.

The communication works in the other direction too. With enough of these cars on the road, the traffic lights can adjust their patterns to improve overall traffic flow. If you have more cars heading in one direction than the other, perhaps they should get more green lights and for longer durations. Of course, it wouldn’t be fair for these specific 120 cars to control traffic patterns, but it does show what could happen if something like this becomes a standard feature.

In fact, the C2X trial is part of the larger Safe Intelligent Mobility – Test Field Germany (simTD) research project. Daimler is a part of it, along with other German automakers, automotive suppliers, communication firms, research institutions and public sector. This most recent trial puts C2X into the real world and out of the safe confines of a closed course. If all goes well, we may soon have more and more cars as part of this automotive “social network.” Of course, we’ll all have to get over our Big Brother concerns first.

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If you build it, they will come. That sentiment seems to sum up German car manufacturer Daimler’s thinking, as they are pairing with technology company The Linde Group to add 20 hydrogen filling stations in Germany. There are currently about 30 hydrogen refueling points in Germany, but only seven of them are integrated into a public filling station facility.

The new stations will be located in Stuttgart, Berlin and Hamburg as well as along two routes, one that runs north-south and one that crosses Germany in the east-west direction. Construction of the fueling stations will begin in 2012. Daimler hopes to use existing sites belonging to different petroleum companies that are strategically located in the traffic network. They want to make it possible to drive anywhere in Germany with a fuel-cell-powered vehicle.

An infrastructure for hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles is crucial to entice consumers to switch over to emission-free vehicles. As of April 2010, there were approximately 68 hydrogen fueling stations in the United States and nine in Canada. That number continues to grow in the US, as Toyota opened the first pipeline-fed hydrogen refueling station in California in May 2011. Toyota has promised a hydrogen vehicle by 2015. Considering Germany is about the size of California, car manufacturers have a lot of catching up to do if they hope to push their own hydrogen vehicles.

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