Volvo has teamed up with the Swedish Transport Administration and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to test a cloud-based system that allows real time road conditions to be shared with individual cars.
Volvo has teamed up with the Swedish Transport Administration and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to test a cloud-based system that allows real time road conditions to be shared with individual cars.
The real-time data about slippery patches on the road are used to warn vehicles nearby, at the same time as it contributes to making winter road maintenance more efficient.
“The pilot is one of the first practical examples of the way communication between vehicles over the mobile network enables vehicles to ‘speak’ to each other and with the traffic environment. This can contribute to making traffic safer,” says Erik Israelsson, Project Leader Cooperative ITS (Intelligent Transport System) at Volvo Cars.
How does it work? When the test car detects an icy or slippery road patch, the information is transmitted to a database via the mobile phone network. An instant warning is transmitted to other vehicles that are approaching the slippery area, making it possible for the drivers to take immediate action to avoid a critical situation.
A slippery road warning on the instrument cluster alerts the driver. The application in the vehicle will be designed to adapt the driver warning to match the severity level based on the vehicle speed and the present road conditions.
The same information is also sent to the road administrator to help better plan and execute road maintenance. “When the road administrator has access to information from a large number of cars, the data can be used to make winter road maintenance more efficient. The information could help to improve road safety further for all road users. This could also reduce the use of salt when not needed and minimise the environmental impact,” says Erik Israelsson.
Source: Volvo
