The European intelligent transport organisation ERTICO is looking to introduce a global standard for vehicle-to-cloud data, a development believed to bring the promise of automated vehicles closer to reality.
“Defining a standardised interface for exchanging information between the in-vehicle sensors and a dedicated cloud as well as between clouds will enable broad access, delivery and processing of vehicle sensor data; enable easy exchange of vehicle sensor data between all players, and finally enable enriched location based services which are key for mobility services as well as for automated driving,” said ERTICO CEO Hermann Meyer.
The platform under consideration is SENSORIS, developed by location cloud company HERE. To date, 11 major automotive and supplier companies have already joined the SENSORIS Innovation Platform including: AISIN AW, Robert Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Elektrobit, HARMAN, LG Electronics, NavInfo, PIONEER and TomTom.
HERE APAC Director, Brent Stafford, said the SENSORIS standard will enable driverless connected vehicles to prepare for changing conditions and hazards well before the vehicle, be it a truck or car, can see them.
“In Australia, HERE has already mapped over 90% of the country’s population areas with the High-Definition machine-readable maps needed to test the new self-driving vehicles. In addition to the various sensors such as Lidar, Cameras, and ultrasonics required in driverless vehicles, the map is a critical virtual sensor which provides vital information to the vehicle about the road and terrain ahead and what it is likely to encounter over the hill or around the corner where the sensors cannot currently ‘see’,” said Stafford.
However, driverless vehicles need more than just these sensors to provide a smooth and safe driving experience. They need to communicate with all other vehicles on the road, sending, receiving, interpreting and responding to live route conditions in real-time.
“By speaking a universal data language, in the future, a German built autonomous truck driving down an Australian highway will be able to warn a driverless Japanese sedan and US made SUV following close behind to ‘slow down’ or ‘change lanes’ because of a wombat or mob of kangaroos near the road ahead. Or perhaps a Holden parked in a busy neighbourhood could notify a BMW that has been circling nearby, that a parking spot has just become available in the adjacent space,” he said.
“Sharing of the data can apply to all modes of transport including bikes, buses, trams, and trains; not just cars or trucks. To get this right, there is simply insufficient information available from one car brand or model, and to enjoy the huge benefits of the new innovation and its reduction in emissions and congestion, we have to think both in a new scale and collaboratively.”
[Communication between vehicles via the cloud can provide advance warning of accidents. Image: HERE]
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