A cooperative vehicle-highway communication system allows vehicles and pedestrians to determine their location by sensing selected coatings on roadways, sidewalks, and other paved surfaces in both indoor and outdoor environments. The systems recognize intelligent materials under sensors to determine geo-location. The intelligent materials are incorporated into paints on the roadway surface to mark key locations. Additionally, vehicles recognize highway paint/markings and signs with intelligent paint that provide specialized message content to support driver information and control applications. The intelligent paint materials include a coating that absorbs light while converting the absorbed light to electromagnetic energy. This electromagnetic energy is read by sensors to recognize the materials. The sensors transform the electromagnetic energy into processing signals to determine operating characteristics of the vehicle, including position and motion characteristics, and to provide operation actions of the vehicle. For mobility impaired pedestrians, the precisely defined geo-locations.