Skip to main content

Volvo initiates cloud-based road warning system

Volvo Car Group (Volvo Cars), the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen) are joining forces in a pilot project in which road friction information from individual cars is shared within a cloud-based system. The pilot uses 50 Volvo cars; when the test car detects an icy or slippery patch of road, the information is transmitted to Volvo Cars’ database via the mobile phone network. An instant warning is transmitted to other vehicles ap
March 21, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Volvo Car Group (7192 Volvo Cars), the 746 Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (7446 Statens Vegvesen) are joining forces in a pilot project in which road friction information from individual cars is shared within a cloud-based system.

The pilot uses 50 Volvo Cars; when the test car detects an icy or slippery patch of road, the information is transmitted to Volvo Cars’ database via the mobile phone network. An instant warning is transmitted to other vehicles approaching the area, making it possible for the drivers to take immediate action to avoid a critical situation.

A warning on the instrument cluster alerts the driver. The in-vehicle application will be designed to adapt the driver warning to match the severity level based on the vehicle speed and the present road conditions.

Information about the road condition is also sent to the road administrator as a complement to existing weather measurement stations along the road. The data can help the road administrator to better plan and execute winter road maintenance and quickly address changed conditions.

“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.
 
“We have 50 test cars on the roads, and next winter the fleet will grow considerably. Our aim is to make the technology available for our customers within a few years,” he adds.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Vaisala takes to the road with new mobile road weather sensor
    November 1, 2012
    Finland-headquartered environmental and industrial monitoring specialist Vaisala is to take to the road to demonstrate the functionality of its new mobile sensor technology to its customers in Europe during the winter. Starting in Vienna, Austria, Vaisala’s Tracks Across Europe mobile road weather tour will take vehicles equipped with the new Vaisala Condition Patrol DSP310 road surface monitoring technology through fifteen European countries that are especially prone to snow and ice. The tour will end at V
  • A carbon free and accident free Europe by 2015?
    February 2, 2012
    By 2050, the Europe Commission aims to make transport in Europe carbon- and accident-free. Between now and then, however, a significant technological development and deployment effort is needed. Here, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, talks about what's being done. In many respects, COOPERS, CVIS and SAFESPOT, set up by the European Commission (EC) to explore the potential of cooperative infrastructure systems, are already legacy projects. Between them, the three devel
  • FOTsis targets ‘socially inclusive’ cooperative ITS
    December 5, 2013
    The FOTsis project addresses the imbalances between the vehicular and infrastructure sides of cooperative ITS infrastructures and looks to ensure road operators can help to enrich future technology applications. By Jason Barnes. Several developments have conspired to push the vehicular side of cooperative infrastructures/cooperative ITS to the fore in recent years. The automotive industry’s rather shorter product development and lifecycles combined with economic slowdown in many regions gave rise to the not
  • Here to lead vehicle hazard warning pilot in Finland
    July 1, 2015
    Mapping and navigation specialist Here has been selected by Finnish traffic agencies Finnish Transport Agency (FTA) and Trafi, the Finnish Transport Safety Agency to lead a pilot project to enable vehicles to communicate safety hazards to others on the road. Here will also work with traffic information management service company Infotripla in implementing the project, which will be the first to implement a road hazard warning messaging system as described in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)