With more than a billion cars now on the world’s roads it’s pretty safe to assume that in general, mankind loves motoring. And this is despite the number of road traffic accidents, hideous congestion and choking pollution caused by our vehicles each and every day. However, innovations like the internet of things and connected cars are beginning to rev up a mood of optimism across the transport sector.
New technologies have the potential to not only help improve road safety, but to cut carbon emissions, traffic jams and wasted journeys. Connected cars, for example, will be able to use internet sensors to find free parking spaces and avoid road works.
This will come as a huge relief to drivers and passengers who spend an estimated 90 billion hours in traffic jams each year and to motorists in some cities burning up one third of their petrol looking for a place to park.
Join the platoon another innovation being carefully evaluated is platooning a system that uses mobile technology to link vehicles together in a highly efficient, bumper to bumper train. Platooning increases road capacity and improves vehicle fuel economy by around 20 per cent. Recently, US motor manufacturer Tesla needed to fix a potential fire causing problem in 29,222 of its cars. It achieved this through ‘over the air’ (OTA) software updates, delivered using mobile technology.
For owners, the beauty of OTA updates is that they no longer have to make the effort of driving their car back to the dealerships for recalls or bug fixes.
BT’s Andy Rowland head of customer innovation for automotive, agrees that as well as being convenient for motorists, OTA updates, help car firms save money and make a positive contribution to the environment. “Thanks to OTA updates manufacturers won’t necessarily need to hastily recall thousands of vehicles.”
“These updates could even be used to remotely tune vehicles for particular journeys. For example, to get the optimum performance for a city or a motorway trip.”
One of the main barriers to the take up of connected cars is security, as Rowland explains “Cars may be turning into smartphones on wheels but they were never designed to be connected. This is the reason why they are vulnerable to hackers.“
Taking on the hackers, he adds “making cars and their connections more secure is a priority for BT right now. We’re adapting the tools and skills we use to successfully defeat hackers in the traditional IT world and applying them to the brave new world of the internet of things.” Another area where BT is taking a lead role in helping the UK government’s smart transport internet of things ecosystem project, designed to accelerate innovation in transport.
Here, BT created a data hub that acts as a data aggregation and accessibility focal point for all those involved in the project including app builders and service developers.
Smart city BT has established another data hub in Milton Keynes where the firm is a partner in the pioneering MK smart programme. “We are looking very closely as smart parking in Milton Keynes.” Rowland says “There are currently around 25,000 parking spaces but 12,000 more may be needed by 2020. This is a big issue especially when it costs the council around £15,000 to create each new plot. “However,” continues Rowland, “we know that approximately 7,000 existing spaces are empty at any one time. Usually because people don’t know where to find them.”
A recent smart parking pilot involved the installation of sensors in the parking bays at Milton Keynes’ railway station.
Detecting the arrival and departure of a vehicle, the sensors send information wirelessly to lamppost mounted solar powered repeaters. The data is collected, sorted and then transmitted over the internet to the MK data hub.
There it’s processed and the resulting analysis made available on the Milton Keynes council public information dashboard, as well as on a browser that displays bay status (red or green) as an overlay to Google maps.
No more losing the plot, says Andy Rowland, “smart parking will help maximise the use of existing infrastructure in Milton Keynes and reduce fuel use and emissions from vehicles driving around in search of spaces.”
“The estimated benefit from full deployment across Milton Keynes will be a capital saving of at least £105 million.” Big savings illuminated The MK smart programme is also looking closely at the benefits of smart street lighting and smart bins.
Both of these can help save costs. For example, intelligent lighting technology dims street lights when it detects nobody is around, and the bin’s sensors tell the council when its is full rationalising rubbish collections.
But they will also both help to ease road congestion, there will be fewer refuse trucks being sent out and less vans on the road checking if lights are working they will be monitored remotely.
Andy Rowland concludes. “Connected cars will run especially smoothly in smart city environments particularly when any lingering security concerns diminish. Stand by for a new era of happier motorists and greener motoring and transport.”
Content on this page is paid for and provided by BT, sponsor of the technology and innovation hub.
