When I drive, I rely on my radio to let me know about road conditions ahead of me. Sometimes that works, sometimes not so much. Volvo has come up with something ingenious. What if cars themselves could report on the road conditions based on what the car encounters? That would take the guesswork out of warning drivers where they need to take some extra care. 
In Scandinavia, Volvo has 50 test cars on the road. When any of the Volvo test car detects an icy or slippery road patch, the information is transmitted to Volvo Cars’ database via the mobile phone network. An instant warning is transmitted to other vehicles that are approaching the slippery area, making it possible for the drivers to take immediate action to avoid a critical situation. A slippery road warning on the instrument cluster alerts the driver. The application in the vehicle will be designed to adapt the driver warning to match the severity level based on the vehicle speed and the present road conditions. In short, the vehicles “speak” to each other over a cloud based network, and as a result it allows you to drive safer. But there’s an added benefit. The information about the icy patch is also sent to the road administrator as a complement to existing measurement stations along the road. The data can help the road administrator and their contracted entrepreneurs to better plan and execute winter road maintenance and quickly address changed conditions.
Now this joint pilot test between Volvo, The Swedish Transport Administration, and The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is expected to grow and encompass additional information that can be shared between cars and their drivers. The possibilities are endless and it will result in making everyone who drive on public roads safer.
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Volvo Pilots Using Cloud-Based Communication To Make Driving Safer
When I drive, I rely on my radio to let me know about road conditions ahead of me. Sometimes that works, sometimes not so much. Volvo has come up with something ingenious. What if cars themselves could report on the road conditions based on what the car encounters? That would take the guesswork out of warning drivers where they need to take some extra care.
In Scandinavia, Volvo has 50 test cars on the road. When any of the Volvo test car detects an icy or slippery road patch, the information is transmitted to Volvo Cars’ database via the mobile phone network. An instant warning is transmitted to other vehicles that are approaching the slippery area, making it possible for the drivers to take immediate action to avoid a critical situation. A slippery road warning on the instrument cluster alerts the driver. The application in the vehicle will be designed to adapt the driver warning to match the severity level based on the vehicle speed and the present road conditions. In short, the vehicles “speak” to each other over a cloud based network, and as a result it allows you to drive safer. But there’s an added benefit. The information about the icy patch is also sent to the road administrator as a complement to existing measurement stations along the road. The data can help the road administrator and their contracted entrepreneurs to better plan and execute winter road maintenance and quickly address changed conditions.
Now this joint pilot test between Volvo, The Swedish Transport Administration, and The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is expected to grow and encompass additional information that can be shared between cars and their drivers. The possibilities are endless and it will result in making everyone who drive on public roads safer.
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This entry was posted on April 2, 2014 at 8:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Volvo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.