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Vaisala unveils iRWIS solution whatever the weather

Road authorities around the world use Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) as their ITS solution to managing weather’s impact on the roadways. These networks of roadside weather stations have become large networks with a high cost to maintain. But as Vaisala’s Jon Tarleton, senior marketing manager and meteorologist, points out,
September 8, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Jon Tarleton: “Vaisala would like to introduce you to iRWIS”

Road authorities around the world use Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) as their ITS solution to managing weather’s impact on the roadways. These networks of roadside weather stations have become large networks with a high cost to maintain. But as 144 Vaisala’s Jon Tarleton, senior marketing manager and meteorologist, points out, connected vehicle opportunities offer an even greater method for collecting the weather on the road; however this network will try and overcome accuracy challenges in detecting weather with sheer volume of data. “This might work to a point, but we will always need accurate roadside weather and road conditions to verify what the vehicles are collecting,” says Tarleton. 

Here at the ITS World Congress, at the epicenter of the winter of 2013-14, Vaisala is launching something that is more a best practice philosophy than a piece of hardware or software. “Vaisala would like to introduce you to iRWIS,” says Tarleton. “It consists of intelligent roadside hardware making its own decisions, and sophisticated decision support software that makes ‘making the call’ easier and more accurate.”

iRWIS is flexible, from the scalable software solutions to RWS200 that allows agencies to deploy exactly and only the hardware needed.

“iRWIS is an exciting solution from Vaisala,” says Tarleton. “It is all about providing Vaisala’s vast experience in road weather technology, in a solution that is flexible and open, so you can choose exactly what you need to solve your challenge. Today, you can’t just think about upfront costs, you must choose a smart solution for the long run.”

Booth: 2808
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