Volvo Announces A New Pilot Project To Make Winter Driving Safer

March 20, 2014December 9, 2018 Aseem Girkar 0 Comments Auto, Automobiles, Cloud Based, Pilot project, Safety, Security, Volvo, Winter

Volvo today announced a new pilot project after joining hands with the Swedish Transportation Administration and the Norwegian public Roads Administration, that will share road friction information from individual cars through a cloud-based system, in order to make winter driving safer. The data fetched from road frictions will determine the slippery patches on the road which will be used to warn the vehicles nearby, and thus making winter driving more efficient.

“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.

Volvo cars will transmit information through the mobile phone network i.e. when the vehicle detects an icy or slippery road patch, the data is transmitted to Volvo Cars database using the mobile phone network. Not only that, an instant will also be transmitted to other vehicles that will approach the slippery area, and thus will allow drivers to take immediate action to avoid a critical situation.

The data will also be send to the road administrator, so that they can better plan and execute winter road maintenance and quickly check for the change conditions. The information will be helpful to improve safety further for all road users and winter road maintenance more efficient. This ambitious project by Volvo will certainly improve traffic flow, and will allow drivers a more comfortable drive. Stay tuned for more updates.

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