Asfinag, Austria’s public roads operator, has formed a partnership with Siemens Mobility to provide an intelligent traffic management system in an effort to make the roads safer.
The technology which will be provided by Siemens Mobility aims to facilitate the exchange of safety information between the roads and vehicles. The Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS) leverages broadcast technology to analyze conditions on the road such as traffic jams, accidents or lane closures, among other things, and then transmits this information to drivers.
Asfinag has stated that it is the first infrastructure provider in Europe to install a network which provided this sort of service.
Josef Fiala, managing director of Asfinag, said, “The direct connection with our customers provides an important contribution to safe, efficient and sustainable mobility.”
CEO of Siemens Mobility Intelligent Traffic Systems, Markus Schlitt, said, “The digitization of roadway and traffic management is an essential component of future mobility and we are delighted to partner with Asfinag on this groundbreaking project.”
“We believe intelligent communication and technologies that connect vehicles of all kinds with smart infrastructure helps cities, or in this case highway authorities, manage their mobility and improve quality of life, by significantly reducing congestion, accidents and emissions.”
The installation of the equipment along 2,200km of highway is currently underway. They have already begun to deploy almost 525 Siemens mobility road-side units (RSU) and a control center. The first services of the C-ITS initiative will entail hazard warning alerts and this is expected to be operational within the next 16 months. Later on, they also plan to focus on supporting autonomous driving and networked traffic management.
Siemens Mobility has stated that the products used in this initiative do not discriminate against any vehicle type as their road-side units have been developed as per their security standards. The cooperative system they will provide and the road-side units will work together to link vehicle with the surrounding road infrastructure and traffic management centers.