The American military is reported to be planning trials of vehicle-to-infrastructure technology on a road in Michigan this summer.The American National Law Review reports that the road test will involve truck convoys with at least four vehicles apiece, with receivers that communicate with roadside transponders set alongside the highway.The transponders will be used to relay traffic condition information, like lane closures and speed limit information, to members of the convoy.

It also says the US Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC, is working on what could be the next step for Army convoys, autonomous technology that allows supply trucks to operate without human intervention in either on-road or off-road applications.

The report comments that the potential benefit to civilian applications is both direct and indirect, as the Army will civilian research initiatives like the University of Michigan's Mcity project, and the Army's civilian partners should get new, concrete information about how the technology behaves in the real world, information that may be difficult to gather in the current regulatory environment without government backing.

As the report asks, will this technology be the next industry to benefit from military innovation, following such things as diverse as GPS, microwave ovens, jet engines, and radar?