Public Funding for Inrix UK LTD.

Deciding if and where to salt roads during winter is a worldwide problem, and typically uses limited roadside sensors’ data in weather forecasts. Around the zero degrees critical area, not salting has safety implications but unnecessary or too much salting wastes money and causes damage to the environment. Because of forecasts' limitations due to using fixed sensors, estimates suggest 10-50% of salting is actually not needed, costing £16 - £80m a year for the UK alone. So this study examines if weather and other data from connected vehicles processed by INRIX can improve decision making. For the M25 in winter 2015/16, we will compare the salting decisions that would be taken by Connect Plus Services (CPS) if they had new vehicle based data against their actual decisions, to quantify real benefits and assess feasibility of this innovation. The project will quantify the value of vehicles as extra sensors and assess innovative new products and services. Such evidence will help show the benefits of the data, improve how it is collected / presented for salting and reduce risk in further R+D.

Currently the automotive industry is launching semi-autonomous driver assist features where the driver has to be aware of their surroundings to regain control where the car can't cope. Moving towards full autonomy, the vehicle will have to operate without a driver as a backup. Vehicles will have to handle complex situations and any road junction. The vehicle relies on its sensors to operate safely and efficiently. These sensors have limitations when there are obstructions in the way or there are rapid lane change and fast moving traffic where a clear view is not possible for example some lane merges or roundabouts. The AutopleX project includes the technical domains of cybersecurity, cooperative autonomous driving, vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communications, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and Internet of Things (IoT) to demonstrate enhanced autonomy for complex vehicle manoeuvres at junctions, supporting SAE Level 4+ autonomy.