200 Just ordinAry robots
these roadside systems can easily be integrated with existing trac
lights. In addition, via a coupling of dierent trac junctions on ring
roads, it will independently yield an advisory speed for cars, creating
an optimal green wave in the future. Another example of V2I com-
munication is eCall, an electronic safety system that automatically
calls emergency services if there is a serious accident (see Box 5.2).
Examples of V2V are alerting trac after detecting slippery road
surfaces and mutual communication in trac congestion in order to
optimize trac ow. Often, V2V and V2I will operate in conjunc-
tion with each other.
In Ann Arbor, near Detroit, some 3000 residents of the area have
allowed researchers from the University of Michigan Transportation
Research Institute to install V2V and V2I communications equip-
ment in their vehicles so that they can exchange data with other
vehicles, as well as nodes at trac lights, intersections, and roadway
curves. e experiment spans roughly 73 lane miles in the northeast
part of the city. is world’s largest street-level connected-vehicle
experiment, called Safety Pilot, is being conducted to nd out how
well connected- vehicle safety technologies and systems work in a
real-life environment with real drivers and vehicles. It will test per-
formance and usability and will collect data to better understand the
safety benet of a larger-scale deployment.* Connected-vehicle safety
applications will enable drivers to have 360° awareness of hazards and
situations they cannot even see. rough in-car warnings, drivers will
be alerted to imminent crash situations, such as cars in the driver’s
blind spot, or a vehicle ahead braking suddenly. By communicating
with the roadside infrastructure, drivers will be alerted when they are
entering a school zone, when road menders are working, and when a
trac light they are approaching is about to change. At present, it is
the human drivers who receive and act on the alerts, but in the near
future the researchers will experiment with driverless cars that will
be able to respond automatically. e researchers hope to demonstrate
that fully driverless vehicles can operate within the whole infrastruc-
ture of the city by 2021 and to show that these can be safe, eective,
and commercially successful.
†
*
http://safetypilot.umtri.umich.edu/.
†
http://phys.org/news/2013-11-driverless-networked-cars-ann-arbor.html.
201who drives the CAr?
BOX 5.2 eCall
e V2I communication system eCall is a warning system that
automatically alerts emergency services when an accident occurs
based on precise GPS-based positioning and the provision of
eCall prioritization within the mobile communication network.*
e eCall system is activated when the airbags in a vehicle are
activated or when impact sensors detect a collision. Over the cel-
lular network, an SMS is sent to the local emergency phone center,
and that message includes the GPS coordinates, time, direction
of travel, and vehicle identication. Also, the driver gets a voice
connection with the emergency desk at the push of a button, and
a voice connection is also established when an automated system
kicks in. us, a desk helper can determine whether the car occu-
pant is still able to communicate. is system has been developed
with European funding and should signicantly lower the number
of victims of road accidents by bringing emergency services faster to
the scene of the accident: “Times saved translates into lives saved.”
†
e European Commission estimates that eCall will reduce crash
response time by about 50% in rural areas and up to 40% in urban
areas.
‡
When medical care for the severely injured is available soon
after the accident, the death rate and severity of trauma can be
signicantly reduced. It was shown in a Finnish study that a reduc-
tion of 5%–15% of fatalities and a reduction of 10%–15% of serious
injuries can be expected when eCall is fully deployed (Virtanen,
Schiroko, Luoma, & Kulmala, 2006). Moreover, the system will
result in less congestion, because crashed vehicles can be recovered
faster. is system has been made compulsory by the European
Commission and will be installed in passenger cars sold from
2018. e European Commission believes that a pan-European
eCall is estimated to have the potential to save up to 2500 fatalities
annually in the EU when fully deployed.
§
*
www.esafetysupport.org/download/ecall_toolbox/049-eCall.pdf.
†
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ecall-time-saved-lives-saved.
‡
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140224IPR36860/
html/Parliament-supports-life-saving-eCall-system-in-cars.
§
htt p: //w ww.europarl.europa .eu/news /en/new s-room /content /2 014022 4I PR368 6 0/ ht ml/
Parliament-supports-life-saving-eCall-system-in-cars.
202 Just ordinAry robots
5.4.3 Cooperative Driving
e Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge took place in May 2011
and was organized by the Dutch innovation program HTAS, High
Tech Automotive Systems, and TNO. Ten international teams dem-
onstrated their ideas about cooperative driving (see Figure 5.1).
According to the researchers, cooperative driving has the advantages
of increasing trac safety, helping trac ow, lowering harmful
emissions, and making driving easier.* e idea of vehicles commu-
nicating with each other is not new, but until recently the necessary
technical components were either lacking or were too expensive for
commercial application. However, more and more cars are equipped
today with satellite navigation, communication devices, and radar,
or even a camera that monitors the distance to the car just in front.
ese constitute the main requirements for cooperative driving.
us, a large number of companies, research institutes, and uni-
versities show interest in this concept and have established research
programs. Cooperative systems are also high on the EU’s agenda,
given the number of co-funded research projects in this eld, such
as Safespot (2006–2010),
†
CO-OPerative SystEms for Intelligent Road
Safety (COOPERS, 2006–2010),
‡
Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure
Systems (CVIS, 2006–2010),
§
and Safe Road Trains for the Environment
(SATRE, 2009–2013).
¶
ese projects mainly focus on improving
the communications between vehicles and roadside systems. Box 5.3
c ontains a brief description of the SATRE project.
In principle, the driver is not required to remain attentive when the
car is in an autonomous mode, for example, when driving in a “pla-
toon,” but must be available to take control of the car within a certain
amount of time after receiving an alert. Cooperative driving is techni-
cally feasible. All necessary systems are commercially available and are
even being tted today as standard equipment in many cars. Research
such as that of SATRE shows that it will become feasible in the short
term. Even standardization—essential for the practical application of
*
www.htas.nl/index.php?pid=127.
†
www.safespot-eu.org/.
‡
www.coopers-ip.eu/.
§
www.cvisproject.org/.
¶
www.sartre-project.eu/.
203who drives the CAr?
The road train system makes it
possible for the driver to work
on his or her laptop, read a
book, or watch a film.
Drivers who want to join a roa
d
train state their destination and
are guided by their on-board
navigation system to th
e
nearest road train. The car
joins the rear of the queue
and the system takes
over control of the car.
The lead vehicle, for instance, a bus,
is driven by a professional driver. In
this system, the lead vehicle takes
over all the following vehicles via
wireless radio communications.
The system is built into the cars
and does not require any extended
infrastructure along the existing
road network.
As they approach their destination,
drivers take over control of their own
vehicles, leave the road train by pulling
out to the side, and then continue on
their own to their destination.
The other vehicles in the queue close the gap
and continue together on their journey to
the location where the road train separates
once again into its individual vehicles.
Join a Road Train
A safe and energy-efficient way to travel
6–8 Vehicles
in each convoy
Figure 5.1 Graphic of the road train system. (Photo courtesy of Ricardo UK Ltd./SARTRE-Project.)
204 Just ordinAry robots
BOX 5.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE SATRE PROJECT
Started in 2009, SATRE is a research program funded by the
European Union in which car manufacturer Volvo also coop-
erates. e aim of the research is to develop a technology that
allows the development of so-called car trains (see Figure
5.2). e idea is not new. In 1997, General Motors carried out
tests on a series of Buicks that could travel at a short distance
behind each other, taking their guidance from magnetic sen-
sors in the road surface (V2I). In the SATRE project, how-
ever, the cars are mutually linked by electronic communication
(V2V). According to the researchers, these “platoons,” or “road
trains,” will become reality within 10years. Since 2011, the
rst vehicles with this technology have been tried on test-drive
circuits. When “platooning,” cars have a mutual following dis-
tance of 0.2 seconds instead of the nearly 2 seconds regular
cars have on average as their following distance. ese cars
mutually exchange information about their speed, position,
and acceleration. When one car brakes, the vehicles follow-
ing it also reduce their speed almost immediately. is is in
fact a form of cooperative adaptive cruise control. Because of
Figure 5.2 Cooperative driving. (Photo courtesy of Ricardo UK Ltd./SARTRE-Project.)
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