While driving on the highways, quite often we come across messages displayed on electronic sign boards either over head or on the side of the road. Sometimes they could be running messages. The message could be an Amber Alert, a Traffic Alert or any other important message.
With the higher speed that we will be driving on the Interstates, often, we will not be able to read the message completely. We will never have a second chance to read the message. This will defeat the purpose of the message.
The cost of the GPS units has come down substantially and most of us use a GPS unit. Along with giving us the turn by turn directions, some GPS units also give traffic alerts and let us drive away from the traffic jams. The traffic alerts are transmitted as radio signals and received by the GPS units.
If all the message boards on our way can also transmit the same message at a designated fixed frequency and the GPS units have built in receiver to receive this frequency, the GPS unit can display the same message in our dashboard for a longer time, enough for us to read it. It can even be saved into memory and brought up later. In case of Amber Alert, they can even display a picture of a similar vehicle and the license plate.
Ambulances and Police vehicles can also send messages to our GPS units when needed. Even the Traffic signals can transmit their status. The GPS unit can compute our speed and the distance to the traffic light and suggest us to slow down and stop on Red or to proceed with Green signal without stopping.
This concept can easily be incorporated into the GPS units and signal boards with the available technology.