Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems: Towards High-Level Automated Driving

Abstract

Around fifteen years ago, the development of cooperative systems started. Short-range communication would provide connectivity between neighbouring vehicles to exchange information, both of their own position and velocity, and of information observed by vehicle sensors, e.g. concerning obstacles on the road or road surface conditions. The idea was that this would enable a whole range of new safety and driver comfort applications. Also other road users, especially vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, could participate in such connectivity, now that smartphones had become widespread. Deployment of cooperative systems has been less rapid than of autonomous systems, partly due to the higher level of complexity of the technology. Also, these systems are less known by the general public. But certainly they are a prelude (and an indispensable component) of an even more advanced technology, which has come to rapid development in recent years, and is receiving widespread attention, also from the general public: automated driving. In view of its complexity, several levels of vehicle automation are distinguished, from no automation at all to high-level and full automation. This speech presents recent results of the ongoing efforts for development and deployment of cooperative systems for road transport. These systems use communication between vehicles, as well as between vehicles and infrastructure, other road users and network, for exchange of information, enabling various applications for safety, efficiency and comfort. Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), also referred to as connected vehicles, are a prelude to, and pave the way towards road transport automation. Vehicle connectivity and information exchange will be an important asset for future highly-automated driving The speech provides an insight in the state of the art of C-ITS, especially addresses the important role of ICT infrastructure, and presents the main achievements in recent European projects.