Skip to main content

Big data, virtualisation to dominate smart transportation says ABI Research

ABI Research’s latest report, Smart Transportation Market Research, covers ITS data, physical roadside transportation infrastructure virtualisation technologies and a systems approach to transportation management, as well as relevant connectivity, analytics, cloud platform, security and identity technologies. Traditional smart transportation approaches to address traffic congestion, safety, pollution, and other urbanisation challenges are expected to hit scalability and efficiency obstacles by the end of
January 6, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
5725 ABI Research’s latest report, Smart Transportation Market Research, covers ITS data, physical roadside transportation infrastructure virtualisation technologies and a systems approach to transportation management, as well as relevant connectivity, analytics, cloud platform, security and identity technologies.

Traditional smart transportation approaches to address traffic congestion, safety, pollution, and other urbanisation challenges are expected to hit scalability and efficiency obstacles by the end of this decade. Traveller information systems such as variable message signs, intelligent traffic lights, camera-enforced urban tolling and traffic monitoring centres will ultimately prove ineffective and prohibitively expensive, threatening to stall economic growth, especially in developing regions. According to ABI Research, global yearly spend on traffic management systems alone will exceed US$10 billion by 2020.

“What will really be required is a step change towards virtualising smart transportation solutions via in-vehicle technology, and cloud-based control systems whereby information is sent directly to and from the car, bypassing physical roadside infrastructure all together. Low latency, peer-to-peer, and meshed-network type connectivity based on DSRC-enabled V2V, 4G, and, in the next decade, 5G, will be critical enablers of this transformation,” comments VP and practice director Dominique Bonte.

ITS virtualisation will heavily rely on big data with car OEMs such as 1686 Toyota, 609 Volvo, and PSA already exploring generating hyper-local weather and/or traffic services from car probe data, to be shared with both other nearby vehicles and, in aggregated from, governments and road operators. Other examples include 260 Continental’s partnership with 7643 Here and 62 IBM on its dynamic eHorizon solution.

However, a closed-loop systems approach will ultimately become the key paradigm, allowing Artificial Intelligence-powered self-steering and learning demand-response solutions influencing traffic levels through dynamic speed limits and variable road use and toll charges. Autonomous vehicles, in an ironic twist, will be managed collectively and controlled centrally, remotely and dynamically adjusting routing and other parameters.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Peter Norton: ‘We can reintroduce freedom of choice in transportation’
    April 22, 2022
    Funding for transit, cycling and walkability can be politically divisive – so why not bypass politics by letting toll payers themselves choose how a fraction of their toll is spent, asks Peter Norton
  • São Paulo integrates traffic data
    August 29, 2014
    Brazil's São Paulo state transport agency Artesp has opened a technology centre that will oversee services provided by highways concessionaires. The information control centre uses IBM's Maximum asset management software and intelligent operations centre technology, implemented by local IT integrator and consulting firm Magna Systems. The centre will gather and integrate traffic volume and toll data control centres along 30 highways operated by 19 licensed companies as well as information captured by
  • Big data and self-driving cars: New studies from ITF
    May 29, 2015
    Two new reports launched by the International Transport Forum (ITF) during the Annual Summit of Transport Ministers in Leipzig, Germany, highlight issues for the transport sector: the use of big data and the trend towards automated cars. The ITF claims that failing to ensure strong privacy protection in the collection and processing of location data may result in a regulatory backlash against the technology, which could hamper innovation and limit the social and economic benefits the use of such data delive
  • Integrated corridor management aids multi-modal transport planning
    January 24, 2012
    Telvent’s Jorgen Pedersen and Tip Franklin discuss how integrated corridor management can create synergies within a multimodal transportation infrastructure, while promoting modal shift. The mantra ‘We cannot build ourselves out of congestion’ has long been stated and too often ignored. But with the economy in dire straits, funding deficits and pressure to reduce governmental spending, this is now being taken seriously by almost everyone who has an interest in the flow of traffic. By ‘everyone’ we include