Bringing the connected vehicle vision closer to reality

Synchronising goals, approaches and solutions

Harmonisation in one area for deployment does not mean that the systems supplied in different regions nor the implementation approaches have to be identical. While in Europe, the automotive industry is at the present time the driving force behind voluntary deployment, the US will take a decision about a mandatory top-down approach during this year. What is more critical is the synchronisation of needs, duties and goals. Stakeholders in all regions are facing similar questions and can commonly find answers and solution approaches. This tagline motivates business departments, authorities, road operators and European cities to intensify their contact in the so called Amsterdam Group. This informal group is composed of the four umbrella organisations CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium, ASECAP (Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures), CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads) and POLIS (European Cities and Regions Networking for Innovative Transport Solutions).

For cooperative systems, equipped vehicles are every bit as needed as equipped traffic infrastructure ? none of the serving industry constituents can take a decision on implementation on their own. At the same time authorities have to be involved as C-ITS is linked to potential regulation, legal and liability issues, and road operators distinguish more and more the wide opportunities of C-ITS for traffic management approaches: Road Side units can be linked to traffic management centres and help to analyse current traffic conditions on track sections. The traffic management centre at the same time can regulate the speed limit on variable traffic signs or display the danger of traffic jams on a gantry.

The innovative character of cooperative systems and their advantages for tomorrow?s mobility are indisputable. The standardisation and profiling for this basic system is expected to be finalised during this year.

Deploying step-by-step

Experts are convinced of future mobility benefiting from cooperative applications. But ultimately, it is the acceptance of the systems by the end users which can set the course for the pervasiveness of cooperative systems on European roads. The convenience of cooperative systems is enhanced when more equipped vehicles are on the road and more RSUs are applied to the infrastructure. In turn, the more cooperative systems will spread, the more benefits the end users will experience in every day traffic. Experts describe this initial situation as the chicken-and-egg problem and make a point of solving it: The members of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium agree on a set of C-ITS applications to be implemented, among them the traffic jam ahead warning, in-vehicle signage, road works warning, motorcycle approaching indication and others.

The Amsterdam Group members have agreed to use and develop an accurate roll-out plan tailored to the need of a minimum penetration rate of equipped vehicles and infrastructure. The solution of the chicken-and-egg problem is a phased deployment approach starting in 2015 with a non-complex, basic system and applications. Improvements and additional services will be implemented in a later deployment phase. To enhance the penetration rate as fast as possible and to let the end user experience the support of C-ITS to the highest extent, the deployment will start in front runner areas: areas of sufficient size in which road operators invest in sufficient equipment of traffic infrastructure, and vehicle manufacturers supply a high number of C-ITS equipped vehicles.

The innovative character of cooperative systems and their advantages for tomorrow?s mobility are indisputable. The standardisation and profiling for this basic system is expected to be finalised during this year. The technology undergoes research with large-scale field trials with participation of average drivers. Recently, the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium and the Austrian Testfeld Telematik Consortium have for the first time invited a wider public audience to experience V2X communication under real traffic conditions in a cooperative mobility driving demonstration at the ITS World Congress 2012 in Vienna. The impressive feedback of the more than 1.100 participants, that also from an end user?s point of view, showed that the mobility of the future is a connected mobility ? and that the end users are looking forward to cooperative systems entering European roads.

 

Dr Karl-Oskar Proskawetz
Managing Director
ITS Niedersachsen

ITS Niedersachsen is a German competence network, building a platform to interconnect research and industry departments to evaluate and develop ITS. Dr Proskawetz?s division at ITS Niedersachsen is focussed on cooperative systems and their benefits to traffic safety. Since 2004, Dr Proskawetz administrates the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium.

 

Dr Daniel Schwarz

Project Manager

Ko-TAG project, Ko-FAS, BMW – Munich

Dr Daniel Schwarz works on concepts for active and integrated safety at BMW Group in Munich.