This article is based upon ideas and preliminary R&D results both from the DRIVE programme and a number of EUREKA transport programmes like PROMETHEUS, CARMINAT and EUROPOLIS. The idea to sell new Road Service Informatics (RSI) as services rather than as products is coming from the telecommunication side (e.g. Minitel in France). The purpose is to show that a number of interesting possibilities to improve road traffic will be available in a few years time, and this article provides the reader with a vision of how these possibilities may be used. The following implementation and usage scenarios refer to a tentative future year 2000. Some of the road transport informatics systems and functions that will be available on the market by that time are first described. The crucial questions about man-machine interaction are described in the next section. A usage scenario is then presented which describes the dynamic interplay between the driver and the informatics services. A forecast for the year 2010 is then provided, with a short scenario that describes the effects on traffic when mature road service informatics have reached a stage of market penetration.
Abstract