Cooperative intelligent transport systems.

Author(s)
Horton, G. Biedka, M. Chiffi, C. Stasio, C. de Doll, C. Meija-Dorantes, L. Bruhova-Foltynova, H. Sperat, Z. Jordova, R. Bárta, D. Polydoropoulou, A. Skinner, I. & Vartis, D.
Year
Abstract

This Research Theme Analysis Report provides a review of research projects under the new Transport Research & Innovation Portal (TRIP) Continuation project for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG-MOVE). It covers the Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) research theme. The purpose of TRIP is to collect, structure, analyse and disseminate the results of EU-supported transport research, research financed nationally in the European Research Area (ERA), and selected global research programmes. The TRIP web portal can be found at http://www.transport-research.info. This research theme analysis report gives an overview of research performed (mostly) in the EU collated by TRIP, providing a view across many projects that fall under the theme title. It provides an assessment of the reported results from these projects and offers perspectives from scientific and policy points of view. Intelligent transport systems (ITS) refers to the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to the transport sector. ITS integrate telecommunications, electronics and information technologies with transport engineering to plan, design, operate, maintain and manage transport systems. It can have applications in a range of fields including infrastructure, vehicles and users, traffic and mobility management and interfaces with other modes of transport. Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) is a subset of ITS that has been defined by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) TC278 WG16/ISO TC204 WG18 and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) EC ITS together as: ‘A subset of the overall ITS that communicates and shares information between ITS stations to give advice or facilitate actions with the objective of improving safety, sustainability, efficiency and comfort beyond the scope of stand-alone systems.’ For the purpose of this review, the theme of C-ITS has been divided into 10 sub-themes and the assessments performed within each sub-theme as well as across the complete C-ITS theme. The 10 sub-themes considered are: • communication technologies; • data protection and security; • freight transport and logistics; • human-machine interaction; • information systems/platform; • motorway applications; • public transport; • safety, efficiency and emissions; • sensors; • urban applications. The key findings from a scientific perspective are: • While motorway applications of C-ITS have in general reached a high degree of technological maturity with many of them being used in large-scale pre-commercial deployments, less progress has been made in C-ITS services for urban, freight or public transport applications. Efforts to bring these services to a commercial level of maturity should continue - for example through the integration of urban-related services with future urban mobility plans. • The increase in levels of vehicle automation has important legal implications on the attribution of liability and compatibility with existing legislation, particularly as the more advanced C-ITS services begin to be deployed following the initial applications. • While much progress has been made on the security and certification of C-ITS, there remains a significant body of work to be done including developing a single common standardised EU trust model and certificate policy and international cooperation on interoperability. • Organisational principles to ensure interoperability (e.g. data management, data ownership and system reliability) remain poorly developed, with strong disagreement between stakeholders highlighted by the C-ITS Platform final report1 on access to data, ownership, responsibility for running data services, etc. • To avoid a fragmented approach to deployment and hence be better able to take advantage of network effects and the single market, national and regional business cases for the deployment of C-ITS need to be developed further. The role of incentives and other methods to foster deployment should also be further examined by the relevant authorities. • Communication and education is needed to inform the public about the technological possibilities, benefits and contribution to societal goals to ensure acceptance and to mitigate fears. • To maximise the potential of C-ITS in an increasingly global market, international cooperation will benefit industry and the public sector. There are agreements for cooperation between Europe, the USA and Japan. International cooperation activities are also supported by different European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) support action projects as well as by the C-ITS Platform itself. Further work here is also recommended in the C-ITS Platform final report. The key findings from a policy perspective are: • Progress is ongoing in the definition of standards relevant to communication technologies and this is expected to continue as C-ITS services mature. Research projects in this area highlighted the importance of involving stakeholders throughout the development process to ensure a more efficient deployment of C-ITS throughout Europe. • Travellers generate massive quantities of detailed information (individual, activity, travel and location) through a variety of channels. This increases the exposure and possibility of inappropriate use of individual information, which raises significant concerns on data privacy, protection and security. Policy developments may be required to address data collection and security issues relating to autonomous and connected vehicles. • The provision of in-vehicle information through tangible, acoustic and visual channels have enabled the smooth introduction of driver assistance systems. By disseminating these systems further, adding vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication and integrating multiple vehicle information systems (without overloading the driver with information), may help in approaching the zero fatality vision pursued by some Member States and by the European Commission’s 2011 Transport White Paper ‘Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system’ (EC, 2011). • To achieve the potential benefits for improved public transport services, there is a need for greater consistency in regulations across Member States to allow for informed planning of public transport services that ensure interoperability. The priority research gaps identified are: • Research to establish widely accepted data and privacy security protocols for use in C-ITS services and their underlying communications technologies. • Research on how to resolve the ‘chicken and egg’ problem on stimulating investment and on identifying viable business models in the sector - particularly at a more local or regional level where investment decisions will be made. • Integrating C-ITS service deployment plans into cities’ longterm urban planning and transport regulation agendas. This will enable better and easier use of C-ITS services and achieve maximum impacts by deploying newer and better services for travellers in the context of sustainable urban development. • Improving the functional linkage of C-ITS applications as a core element of an integrated urban freight transport (UFT) scheme through increased cooperation between C-ITS and UFT projects. • International coordination between the various parties is key to the deployment of C-ITS services and is essential to increase the efficiency and learning capacity of researchers and market parties, to reduce the knowledge divide among European regions and to increase the competitiveness of the European transport sector as a whole. Initiatives such as the C-ITS Platform will be vital in helping to ensure this cooperation. Many of these issues are well aligned with the recommendations for additional work highlighted in the recent C-ITS Platform final report and continued efforts should be made to tackle them in a coordinated fashion. In general, the analysis of the research being performed indicates there is relatively little overlap between many projects and programmes. Those overlaps which have been identified include: • The main areas of research are driven primarily by the business sector and car producers. There is a risk associated with the isolated development of similar driver assistance systems with limited compatibility. It is also important to consider the effects of C-ITS on the safety of passengers (in private cars and public transport) and drivers of vehicles. • The majority of research projects analysed in this study were funded by the EU and have a natural synergy and alignment with EU policy. An exception occurs in the topic of public transport. In this instance, many of the projects are nationally or locally driven initiatives to improve the public transport services offered to end-users and to optimise the fleet management and operations for the operating companies. Increased cooperation and interaction among the various national and local projects could form the basis for broader collaborative research programmes in the future. The review suggests that a lot of good technical research has been carried out and that there is plenty of best practice at the implementation level. Key barriers to a greater application of the research include: • the systems and their interfaces need to be standardised to ensure compatibility of V2V and V2I communications between systems from all manufacturers; • the potential consequences on building the capacity of the C-ITS infrastructure and market fragmentation if the required standardisation is not achieved (or is delayed until after the launch of the first generation of systems and services); • there is a lack of user and stakeholder awareness and a low societal acceptance of the systems; • some systems (especially those based on V2V technologies) will be functional and effective only when a sufficient proportion of the vehicle fleet (or even all vehicles) is equipped; • the future development of transport and C-ITS is difficult to predict for a longer period, leading to investment concerns; • legal issues related to data privacy; • an established and recognised methodology for testing applications that are not commercially deployed. Recommendations made from this review, with the aim of further improving the outputs from the research on C-ITS, include: • Communication technologies — the technical and social factors that should be explored in future research include: - an assessment of the performance of next generation communication technologies, their applicability to connected transport applications and the costs associated with their use; - the definition of relevant standards as communication technologies develop to ensure a consistent approach across Europe and maintain interoperability; - an investigation of the security and privacy/data protection challenges associated with the use of different communication technologies; - research into technical factors such as the latency and reliability of communication technologies and improvements to them, especially where there are high levels of deployment of C-ITS services in congested areas. • Data protection and security — further research is required to establish common methodologies, data protocols and standards for addressing issues of data protection and security among C-ITS services and their supporting technologies, including: - developing privacy metrics to quantify and compare levels of protection provided by different policies and security systems; - developing privacy requirements and standards in the context of data collection activities (using alternative instruments such as mobile device applications, travel surveys, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems, smartcard readers, etc.); - large sample ‘big data’ analysis on a pan-European level that will allow comparisons of user awareness and expectations regarding data sharing, privacy and security issues and adoption rates of ITS-related platforms and systems across EU countries. • Freight transport and logistics — the requirements for future research identified with relevance to freight transport and logistics include: - investigating how to ensure the interoperability of sensors with a wide range of C-ITS services and advanced driver assistance systems, to allow increasingly complex services to be deployed that rely on information generated by several sensors; - investigating the potential for integrating applications in the V2I domain in systems that can be offered as a service for managing freight transport infrastructures; - researching commercial business models and integrated frameworks for linking connected vehicles to open and connected infrastructures, involving public and private infrastructures through ‘collaborative logistics’. • Human-machine interaction (HMI) — the priorities for future research into HMI include: - HMI for informing the driver of non-safety related traffic characteristics, such as congestion mitigation or fuel efficiency; - research the development of integrated vehicle and HMI concepts for all types of users, including the elderly and disabled; - research the requirements for data and privacy security of HMI interfaces, with particular reference to the potential presence of fully automated vehicles in the future. • Information systems/platform — the priorities for future research into information systems and platforms include: - research into the development of systems capable of gathering, processing and enriching big data in real time, covering a mix of different information channels such as navigation systems, smartphones, infrastructure and invehicle devices. • Motorway applications — the requirements for future research under motorway applications of C-ITS should include: - investigating the application of C-ITS motorway services to other vehicle types, such as freight and focused on improvements of non-safety aspects, such as congestion and fuel efficiency; - quantifying the wider costs and benefits of the C-ITS motorway applications under development to ensure that they can deliver benefits in a cost-effective manner; - placing a greater emphasis on the publishing and sharing of the main research outputs; - investigate the user-acceptance of C-ITS under motorway conditions and determine improvements to the systems (including the HMI interface) to increase acceptance. • Public transport — the key aspects of the application of C-ITS to public transport that require further research include: - integrating C-ITS and innovative transport services (such as car-sharing, automated bus services) with the core public transport network, in particular the ability to solve the ‘first-kilometre, last-kilometre’ problem; - investigating the role of C-ITS in the integrating automation into the public transport system; - developing multimodal travel planners using big data and advanced predictive analytics; - developing Mobility as a Service (MaaS) systems to provide integrated travel and payment services to travellers. • Safety, efficiency and emissions — the priorities for future research on the safety, efficiency and emissions aspects of C-ITS should include: - perform in-depth analyses of the links between the intelligent vehicle systems and improvements in driver behaviour, fuel efficiency, traffic safety and overall cost savings; - investigate the risks to traffic safety related to the reliability of the C-ITS infrastructure, in particular how to overcome any potential collapse of the systems; - investigate the risks related to internet attacks (viruses, hackers) to the safety and security of the transport system; - develop guidance for policymakers, as well as transport engineers, to plan and invest in appropriate C-ITS (so improving safety, improving efficiency and reducing emissions), to clarify the market for specific ITS applications and to understand the barriers to implementation. • Sensors — the priorities for future research into sensors for C-ITS should include: - investigate how the interoperability of different sensors can be achieved to provide efficient data fusion capabilities; - integrate sensing systems developed for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications with the communication technologies in C-ITS; - develop advanced sensors and the use of the data provided by them for non-safety-related benefits (such as fuel efficiency, emissions) and for a greater variety of vehicle types (beyond passenger cars). • Urban applications — the priorities for future research into urban applications of C-ITS include: - developing urban C-ITS services to a similar level of maturity as motorway services to help overcome the various transport-related issues affecting cities in the EU; - investigating integration issues between C-ITS services and urban transport, including emerging technologies and trends such as integrated public transport and sharing services, multimodal mobility, MaaS, crowdsourcing and iBeaconTM technologies.; - investigating the application of big data collection and analysis activities to support the future of urban mobility, such as dynamic measurements via smartphones, visualisations and analyses using large-scale data and market demand analyses for public mass transportation; - investigating the processes and traffic flow mechanisms within an urban environment related to: > influence on traffic capacity (smoothing the flow); > reliability of the systems under different traffic conditions; > adaptation to and interaction with the traffic environment; > effects of coupling between different systems; > safety (looking at the driver behaviour and traffic processes, developing a long term database of incidents); - investigating how to improve user acceptance and understanding of new technologies. (Author/publisher)

Publication

Library number
20160491 ST [electronic version only]
Source

Brussels, European Union / Transport Research and Innovation Portal (TRIP), 2016, 97 p., ref.; Research Theme Analysis Report - ISBN 978-92-79-58154-0

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This publication is one of our other publications, and part of our extensive collection of road safety literature, that also includes the SWOV publications.