Floating Car Data Projects Worldwide: A Selective Review

1. Floating Car Data Projects Worldwide: A Selective Review Richard Bishop Bishop Consulting ITS America Annual Mtg April 26, 2004

2. Outline • Floating Car Data introduction • Europe • France • Germany • BMW XFCD: Extended Floating Car Data • DaimlerChrysler CityFCD • German Aerospace Center • Ddg • Mannesman • Netherlands • Sweden • United Kingdom • Japan • Internet ITS • SmartWay • International Standards Probably not a complete list!

3. Floating Car Data • Also known as “probe data” • But probes can be company-sponsored and focused on particular routes of interest • FCD refers to cars reporting data from routes chosen for non-traffic-probing reasons • At least two areas of focus • Urban: street conditions • Taxi’s, delivery vehicles, etc. are effective probes • Commuting: freeways • private vehicles are the core data source

4. Floating Car Data Activities in Europe

5. France • Mediamobile • provides data primarily from the French road administration in the Paris area • data is supplemented with FCD from taxis

6. Germany

7. BMW XFCD* • Extended Floating Car Data (2nd generation) • Reporting by exception • On-board database constantly maintained by new data • Data management messages from center • Detection algorithms filter out false data • Ex: Stopping to pick up passenger • Applications • Traffic • Weather • Precipitation • Visibility • Road Conditions *Reference: Extended Floating Car Data – An Overview, S. Breitenberger, et al. Presented at 2003 ITS World Congress.

8. BMW XFCD: Vehicle Data • Weather • Speed, windshield wiper status, ABS signals, headlight status, navigation • Allows estimates of precipitation, visibility, and road conditions • Traffic • Speed, acceleration • Filtering Data (for “data cleansing”) • Steering angle, door and window status, fuel level, tire pressure, gyro sensor, distance from surrounding objects, airbag status, crash sensors, rough road sensor, route navigation data, position data

9. BMW XFCD Stance • Development of this technology is mainly the responsibility of the auto manufacturers • By integrating on-board data with processing and vehicle communications systems

10. DaimlerChrysler CityFCD* • 2nd generation FCD techniques to reduce message frequency • On-board measurement of link travel time • Link times are compared to on-board link time database • Message transmitted only by exception to the database *FCD FOR URBAN AREAS: METHOD AND ANALYSIS OF PRACTICAL REALISATIONS, C. Demir, et al.

11. DaimlerChrysler CityFCD (2): Conclusions • optimized message generation process can reduce the amount of messages by factor of 40 • Key information is time interval of • congestion build-up • congestion dissolution: • minimum 2 (up to 4) FCD messages are necessary to detect the congestion fronts. • 1.5 % FCD penetration rate gives sufficient service quality in urban traffic net.

12. DaimlerChrysler CityFCD (3): Conclusions • 1.5 % FCD reporting detects incidents lasting longer than 20 minutes with 65 % probability • 2 % FCD and 85 % probability are possible for incidents longer than 30 minutes • Communications aspects: • urban areas: • GSM point-to-point • broadcast between traffic centre and vehicle. • Preferred communication channels are SMS and DAB; other possibilities are: • GPRS (at present no equipment for simultaneous speech and data) • RDS (less bandwidth)

13. Germany -- other • Mannesman • Initial pilot of 1000 vehicles • to get 90% traffic condition detection, estimated that 80,000 – 100,000 vehicles needed with each at minimum 1500 km/year • Conclusion: FCD alone is difficult -- total system should be composed of FCD and road-based sensing instrumentation • DDG • 25,000 equipped cars (BMW & VW) • Separate services for each OEM • Designed for three messages per car per day • Currently processing 30M records per day

14. Germany -- other • German Aerospace Center, Institute of Transport, Berlin • Taxi-FCD System • 2300 taxis involved • Berlin: 300 taxis (5%) • Nuremburg: 500 taxis (95%) • Vienna: 600 taxis (12%) • Munich: 220 taxis (6%) • Stuttgart: 700 taxis (95%) • Using fleet management data, therefore no communication expenses • no on-board expenses for data collection • Data structure: • Vehicle ID • Timestamp • GPS position • Taxi status • Data sent at intervals of between 15-120 seconds • Excellent information on rain, traffic

15. Netherlands • Prelude Project • using FCD in Rotterdam • 60 vehicles took part in the study • European Space Agency trials in Rotterdam

16. European Space Agency (1) • Smart FCD: probe data collection via satellite • Feasibility test with small number of vehicles in Rotterdam area • Satellite approaches cover the entire road network • Conclusions • the collection of valid traffic information by means of satellite is technically feasible • Data gathered shows that the coverage of the satellite system is adequate, even in densely urbanized areas. • Analysis shows traffic jams are detected well with the algorithms used. • Compared to conventional detection methods, this concept offers better coverage and better data at competitive costs. • Additional studies and next steps now under examination. • http://www.estec.esa.nl/wmwww/EMS/ARTESpresentation.htm

17. European Space Agency (2)Smart FCD Experiment

18. Sweden FCD (1) • OPTIS: Optimized Traffic In Sweden • 2002 Field Trial • Partners: • SAAB Automobiles, Scania Commercial Vehicles, Volvo Cars, Volvo Trucks, Swedish National Road Administration • The OPTIS field trial comprised 223 probe equipped vehicles in the city of Gothenburg • Use of Volvo OnCall telematics units

19. Sweden FCD (2) • Simplicity in both probe and server • probe collects and wirelessly transmits positions • No calculations executed in the probe, therefore: • no digital map in the vehicle • geographically independent probe • no need to update map information • no advanced algorithms • Cost of Simplicity: • more intense communication between probe and server (compared to a more advanced probe calculating travel times directly) • Travel times are calculated at link level for each probe using reported position data and timestamps

20. Sweden FCD (3) • OPTIS evaluation results • High quality travel information can be produced with the OPTIS concept. • Alternative routes at major incidents can save as much as 25 minutes for those involved. • The illustrated actual travel time and travel speed produced by OPTIS facilitate more accurate traffic messages • provides TIC with a better overall picture of the current traffic situation • The installation cost of the FCD solution is estimated to be half that of a fixed detector system.

21. Sweden FCD (4) • Government Role • The benefit and the road user’s willingness to pay are limited as long as the supply of useful travel data is small and irregular • Government should finance implementation of the concept during the transitional period until there are enough equipped production vehicles on the market • During transition period, promotion and development of the concept, including large scale demonstration projects • Next steps: 2004 implementation in the three biggest cities in Sweden

22. United Kingdom (1) • UK – Road Traffic Advisor • Objectives • Evaluate New Two-Way Communication System • Provide a National Test Site • Develop In-Vehicle Electronics • Develop an Open Architecture • Product Development • 350 km of M4 from airports to Swansea • 80 5.8 Ghz beacons • Project completed and not currently active

23. United Kingdom (2) • UK -- Trafficmaster • Company established in 1988 in UK • collects and processes traffic data and offer a series of traffic information services. • major part of data comes from stationary sensors; data is supplemented with FCD. • Trafficmaster subscribers mount technical device in their cars that both transmit and receive traffic information. • Trafficmaster is now also established in the continent of Europe • Germany • Italy.

24. Japan Smartway Deployment (1) • Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MLIT) planning and researching floating car techniques for road administration ongoing since 1999 • 1999 • 16 cities • 2001: congestion loss indicators via 4700 “survey vehicles” over 11,000 km of arterials • 2002: buses as probes • 2004: 10,000 probe survey vehicles • Focus is on long term road management and evaluation • not on real-time probe processing

25. Japan Smartway Deployment (2) • Objectives: • measuring national congestion loss and applying road performance monitoring • developing and operating national probe information systems • road project evaluation (before and after) • researching road performance indicators • planning of "national travel speed survey (FY2006)" • environmental emission factor estimation

26. Japan (METI/JARI*) (1) • Real-time probe processing using taxi fleet • 1999: verification testing of prototype system • 2001: large-scale field trial with 300 probe cars • 2004: public field trial scheduled using practical implementation methods • Primary sponsorship by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry • Supported by JSK companies (Denso) and Keio University. • Applications: • travel time information • management of service vehicles • eco-driving (promotion of energy-saving driving behavior) • weather (rainfall) information • Probe cars and probe car data center linked via the Internet. *RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND FIELD TESTING OF THE PROBE CAR INFORMATION SYSTEM (III), Koji Wada General Manager Probe Car Project Office Association of Electronic Technology for Automobile Traffic and Driving (JSK), et al.

27. Japan (METI/JARI*) (2) • Integrated in-vehicle system • collects sensor data stored onboard the vehicles. • receives instructions from a data center • transmitting relevant probe car data • security functions against external attempts to access probe cars • Data items: • Windshield wiper operation • Position • Traveling speed • Fuel consumption • Engine rpm • Position • Turn Signals

28. Japan (METI/JARI*) (3) • Techniques in place for addressing the issue of privacy in the collection of probe car data • authentication • encryption • data overhead for security / privacy increased by 3-5 times compared to earlier systems without these features • Applications selected take into account • the market prospects for the service (scale of demand) • business viability (advantages of using probe car data) • potential for implementation (technical feasibility).

29. International Standards • BMW: standardization is important in early development stages for inter-operability • In-Vehicle • Standard Sensor Interface developed by INVENT (Germany) • Encoding of message contents • Message protocols • ISO TC204 (ITS) Working Group 16 (ITS Communications) • Sub-working group 16.3 focuses on probe vehicle data elements which are transmitted to the probe processing center • New participants are encouraged • Membership open to US Working Advisory Group for WG16

30. Business Model Considerations • Industry • Reporting by exception essential and feasible • Small fleet penetrations levels offer valuable data • Multiple communications options exist • Roles: • Government can support / subsidize in early years to gain momentum • Main responsibility is with auto manufacturers to equip vehicles • Privacy issues being addressed in Japan

31. Thank you. www.IVsource.net (access to download presentation) richardbishop@mindspring.com