Volvo Cars, the Swedish Transport Administration and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration are cooperating on a project to enable cars to share information about conditions that relate to road friction (such as icy patches).
The information will be shared through a cloud-based network – a claimed revolutionary approach to improving traffic safety. The test fleet is expanding from an initial 50 cars to 1,000, the goal is technology available to customers within a few years.
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Volvo Cars’ Erik Israelsson said: “We’ve developed a slippery-road alert, which notifies drivers about icy patches and contributes to making winter road maintenance more efficient. We’re also adding a hazard-light alert, which will tell drivers if another vehicle in the area has its hazard lights on. With these first two features, we have a great platform for developing additional safety features.”
With technology in place, the testing and validation phase is now about to begin with the test widened to include two big Scandinavian cities: Gothenburg and Oslo. Together, these measures will provide a more complete picture of how the system will work in real winter traffic conditions.
The slippery road alert also sends information about icy patches to road administrators as a complement to existing measurement stations along the road. The data can help road administrators and their contractors to better plan and carry out winter road maintenance and quickly address changed conditions. In addition, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration will conduct an independent assessment of the system to identify additional uses for the data in aiding future winter road maintenance.
“In the future we will have increased the exchange of vital information between vehicles, as well as between vehicles and infrastructure,” said Israelsson. “There is considerable potential in this area, including safer traffic, a more comfortable drive and improved traffic flow.”
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