Cooperative Mobility Driving Demo at ITS World Congress in Vienna

Driving demonstration visualises benefits of cooperative systems under real traffic conditions

Vienna. About 2.000 visitors of the ITS World Congress will these days experience a driving demonstration showing mobility of the future. On a 15 kilometres route around Vienna they are invited to find out first-hand how cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (C-ITS) contribute to traffic safety and efficiency. The demonstration is jointly organised by the European automotive industry within the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium and the Austrian Testfeld Telematik Consortium.

Initially, the common driving demonstration enables a wider public audience to convince itself of the advantages of cooperative systems and services. More than 20 demo vehicles are on the demonstration route leading through the Testfeld Telematik in Vienna. Passengers can experience cooperative services under real traffic conditions. Participants of the driving demonstration will get an idea of how C-ITS help to avoid accidents, support sustainable driving and enhance driving comfort by

• informing the driver about
  • current speed limits
  • road works, blocked lanes or rerouting
  • obstacles like broken down vehicles
  • departure times of public transport and airplanes as well as about the capacities of Park & Ride services
  • the suitable speed to pass the next traffic light in green phase
     
• warning the driver if
  • a motorcycle is approaching and risks to be overlooked in blind angle
  • he is approaching the end of a traffic jam
  • a vehicle in front suddenly slows down
  • bad weather causes locally dangerous road conditions like aquaplaning or black ice

How can Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems contribute to this goal? Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) enable vehicles to communicate among each other as well as with traffic infrastructure. The sender and receiver unit – so called ITS stations – is the same for vehicles and for Road Side Units (RSUs). Road Side Units can be connected to traffic signs, gantries or traffic lights. By implication vehicles receive information from them, for example about current speed limits or the signal phase and timing of traffic lights. These communication processes are characterised by the acronym C2X communication. The technology and reference system, of which main parts are used in the demonstration, have been tested and validated in DRIVE C2X, a European project which aims at initiating a framework for deployment of Cooperative Systems and its Europe-wide evaluation in large-scale field operational tests.

In near future, European mobility will become cooperative. “The leading vehicle manufacturers currently prepare the market introduction of cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems and services”, confirms Søren Hess, General Manager of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium during a podium talk at the opening day of the ITS World Congress.

More safety, less traffic jams, less negative impact on environment – these are the challenges of the Austrian ASFINAG, road operator for the high level road network. „Key is to inform the drivers, our customers, appropriately“ says Alois Schedl and Klaus Schierhackl, executive board of ASFINAG, „informed drivers are safe drivers. It is furthermore our goal to provide all information necessary to stimulate the usage of alternative means of transport like public transport.“

Appropriate information at the right time and at the proper place, directly transmitted into the vehicle – these services are currently tested in the Testfeld Telematik in the wider area around Vienna.

The vehicle system analyses the information received and informs the driver about current traffic conditions and warns him in case of potential dangerous situations. He receives these information and warnings via the HMI (Human Machine Interface), the display built-in the vehicle. “The driver solely receives information being immediately relevant and warning against dangers” outlines Hess. But the permanent exchange of real-time data is invisible for the driver.

With the common driving demonstration, for which congress visitors can register online or on site the demo exhibition booth in hall A, the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium, the Testfeld Telematik Consortium and the project DRIVE C2X signalise that vehicle manufacturers and suppliers, research institutions and authorities, the infrastructure industry as well as road operators strongly collaborate to prepare the market introduction of C-ITS. Hess: “For more than 10 years we have been developing the technology and elements of cooperative ITS by extensive research with participants from all the stakeholders and we are now ready for deployment. The common driving demonstration at the ITS World Congress between the automotive industry and the infrastructure will show the customer benefits of selected services that we intend to provide to the users within a few years.”
 

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Notes to Editors:
 

CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium

The CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium is an industrial driven, non-profit association funded by European vehicle manufacturers and supported by equipment suppliers as well as research institutions. Currently 59 partners – 12 vehicle manufacturers, 17 suppliers and 30 research organisations – work together in the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium on non-profit basis with the aim of enhancing traffic safety and efficiency due to cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems. In particular, the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium contributes to the development of Cooperative Systems by exploring the capabilities of Inter-Vehicle Communications and Vehicle2Roadside Communication – summarised in the acronym Car2X Communication and Technology – and by creating a common standard for cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems. Therefore the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium assists the activities of the European standardisation organisations, especially ETSI TC ITS, but also CEN, in accomplishing a European standard which guarantees the interoperability of Cooperative Systems across borders. In addition the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium is occupied also with the international harmonisation of standards, particularly in cooperation with US-American and Japanese OEMs and authorities, to increase the benefits of cooperative ITS and ensure the maximal utility for the end-user.

Testfeld Telematik Consortium

The research project Testfeld Telematik lays its focus on telematic services based on data receivable from road infrastructure, public transport and individual vehicles and used for supporting traffic participation in a safe, efficient and sustainable manner. The Testfeld Telematik Consortium therefore explores requirements and use cases for those data-based cooperative services in a testfield encompassing 45 kilometres of test route, located around the motorway junction A2/A23-A4-S1 in Vienna. The Testfeld Telematik Consortium is an association of 14 industrial companies, including research institutions, infrastructure operators and organisations from the public sector – in this way covering all parts in the value chain of cooperative systems and services – and co-funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy fund. The ITS World Congress supplies the background for the first exposure of results from the test drives in the area mounted with road side units. Tested technologies are personal navigation devices, smartphone applications, internal vehicles systems extended to cooperative systems, exchanging real time information between in-vehicle and infrastructure units and hence ensuring safe, efficient and sustainable mobility.