On-vehicle weather monitoring from Lufft

Why have one weather station when you can have 10 vehicle-mounted units? That’s the message coming from Lufft’s booth at ITS America’s 25th Annual Meeting and Expo. Thomas Stepke, CEO of Lufft USA, said 10 of its vehicle-mounted Mobile Advanced Road Weather Information Systems (MARWIS) can be purchased for the price of one traditional static unit. “With ten sensory moving around the roads, an authority can build up a more comprehensive picture of road conditions in an area than a single stationary sensor,”
June 3, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Erik Wright of Lufft displays the MARWIS technology

Why have one weather station when you can have 10 vehicle-mounted units? That’s the message coming from 6478 Lufft’s booth at ITS America’s 25th Annual Meeting and Expo. Thomas Stepke, CEO of Lufft USA, said 10 of its vehicle-mounted Mobile Advanced Road Weather Information Systems (MARWIS) can be purchased for the price of one traditional static unit. “With ten sensory moving around the roads, an authority can build up a more comprehensive picture of road conditions in an area than a single stationary sensor,” he said.

Last winter eight DOTs trialled the units mounted on vehicles including buses and supervisors’ cars as well as snow ploughs and gritters, some of which travelled 4,000 miles over the winter period.

The unit’s in-cab readout shows road temperature, condition and grip, water height and ice percentage. In the future Stepke predicts similar sensors will be built into many vehicles as standard fitment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kapsch: We need to move quicker towards connectivity
    July 27, 2023
    Connectivity requires a lot of different parties to work together – but it’s the only way to get coverage. Alfredo Escribá, chief technology officer of Kapsch, talks to Adam Hill about the value of ‘orchestrated corridors’
    Read More
  • Ertico weaves tunnel visions into the ‘big picture’
    April 7, 2017
    As he takes the wheel at Ertico - ITS Europe, Jacob Bangsgaard talks to ITS International about the challenges and opportunities facing the organisation and the ITS industry. Ertico - ITS Europe’s new CEO, Jacob Bangsgaard, is no stranger to the organisation having spent five years there before moving to the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) in 2006. Four years later he became director general of the FIA’s Region I (EMEA), which represents more than 100 mobility clubs, and in 2012 he joined Er
    Read More
  • Ertico weaves tunnel visions into the ‘big picture’
    April 7, 2017
    As he takes the wheel at Ertico - ITS Europe, Jacob Bangsgaard talks to ITS International about the challenges and opportunities facing the organisation and the ITS industry. Ertico - ITS Europe’s new CEO, Jacob Bangsgaard, is no stranger to the organisation having spent five years there before moving to the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) in 2006. Four years later he became director general of the FIA’s Region I (EMEA), which represents more than 100 mobility clubs, and in 2012 he joined Er
    Read More
  • Pollution has more than one solution
    April 7, 2014
    Professor Alexander Baklanov of the World Meteorological Organization talks to Colin Sowman about the difficulties of reducing urban pollution. The inhabitants of Beijing have recently been suffering pollution levels 20 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit while the European Union is revitalising its efforts to implement and enforce air quality standards. Almost inevitably much of the clean-up efforts are likely to focus on traffic planners and engineers.
    Read More

Highlighted Content