The Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Road Enterprise and thetelecom operator TeliaSonera have together launched a project for developing a multi channel service and service platform which would in advance inform about the conditions and disturbances along the driver's route and when necessary warn the driver about sudden changes in normal road conditions (such as winter weather). The services will be piloted during this year and commercially launched in the year 2006. The services will help the drivers, forwarders and carriers to drive more safely and to re-route and schedule transportation in order to optimise the logistical chain and to improve its safety and the safety of traffic in general. Mobile driver alert field study has been going on since summer 2005. This pilot will continue until the end of this year. Approximately 20 test users (truck drivers) from transportation companies have tested the ability of the system to produce location aware traffic and weather information on the road. The field study has identified several key issues in the service considering the mobile warnings using TTS (text to speech - voice message). The 3 most important things from the driver´s point of view were: (1) Identification of the message and a general description of the warning situation; (2) location ofthe situation - the identification of the warning spot, e.g. the system has to provide such location information which is most easy to interpret subjectively. This kind of location information would mean using common places and names shared among the drivers on the road. The roads which have more than 3 numbers in their numerical value are difficult to identify for the driver. In these cases the road name or starting point / destination would be a better alternative. The directional information for the warning is essential. (3) A more precise description of the situation and the estimated time of disturbance and affect into traffic flow on that route is required. For the covering abstract see ITRD E134653.
Samenvatting