Currently, when you are in the city and walking around or driving, you might communicate with others using a head nod, hand wave or extended arm. However, in the future these communications could be done completely virtually and automatically with device peer to peer communication, so you do not have to lift a finger.
With smart cities, there will be a ton of ways to use connected vehicles, roads and traffic patterns. In this blog post, we’ll give a deeper dive into the ways smart cities will implement smart road applications.
Information Shared
First, what type of information will be shared across smart roads and smart vehicles? Connected vehicles will share information such as car speed, direction, and location. The information can be shared quickly and securely, as fast as multiple data points per second.
Fewer Accidents
The main benefit of smart road applications will be fewer accidents. Whether it’s texting and driving, distracted driving, drowsy driving, or simply poor choices, most accidents on the road are preventable. An estimated 94 percent of all vehicle crashes are due to human error. With autonomous vehicles and connected smart cities, there will be less room for human error on the road.
Vehicles will be able to communicate with each other. So, if a driver starts to get sleepy and drift into another lane, their vehicle could automatically alert them or steer the car back into the correct lane. Vehicles could also communicate with traffic signals and even the road, or other types of devices like smart bikes, or smart phones to be able to track pedestrians and cyclists.
Additionally, sometimes drivers are not prepared or do not know how to respond, to poor weather conditions. Smart vehicles could automatically slowdown in snow or sleet or automatically turn on windshield wipers to the ideal settings when they detect rain.
Plus, drivers have blind spots that limit visibility. Smart cars can offer some additional sight where humans cannot see, preventing them from accidentally drifting or merging where they shouldn’t.
Drivers can also get alerts for vehicles ahead, dangerous road conditions, or even construction. They can even customize these alerts to get them how and when they want to receive them. Carmaker Cadillac already has a solution for peer to peer vehicles in the works.
Better Traffic & Less Congestion
With smart roads and interconnected vehicles, traffic patterns can be improved, and rush hour will become a lot easier to navigate! Currently, during rush hour traffic is based on many individual driver decisions. Drivers may choose to let someone in their lane, or not. Drivers may selfishly decide not to slow down or speed up to make space for other cars.
Additionally, construction often limits road capacity and prevents full capacity for traffic. However, with smart roads and connected vehicles, cars can communicate with each other to find space on the road, even when construction limits the number of lanes in use. Vehicles will automatically communicate this so that it doesn’t matter if a driver is selfish. Autonomous vehicles can be programmed and taught the optimal way to act that is best for everyone on the road.
More Efficient Parking
Parking is a sore spot for everyone with a vehicle living in or visiting a big city. We’ve all spent way to long trying to find a parking spot. Waiting for drivers to back out. Searching for parking takes a significant amount of our time, that could be better spent elsewhere. However, with smart parking AI can perceive available parking spaces, even in poor lighting conditions, to safely and effectively locate parking.
Real-time data can be gathered through small sensors that communicate from the parking spot to connected vehicles or a smartphone app that displays available spaces. Drivers can search for spaces within a geographical area, and like popular smart scooters or bikes, drivers can reserve car spots ahead of time.
This also can give information to city planners about where drivers are parking the most and which parking spaces are not being used and could be turned into other purposes.
Plus, when it comes to pricing and payment, parking prices can vary depending on demand and can all be paid for through a more modern payment system than coins or cash. Drivers can pay through smartphone apps or other cashless methods. This will essentially eliminate the annoying parking tickets that drivers easily lose before returning them to parking ticket machines.
Public Emergency Response
Smart road applications include better responses to public emergencies. For instance, if an ambulance or fire engine needs to reach a destination quickly, a connected smart road of vehicles could send an alert to vehicles ahead, letting them know to pull over and clear a path. This is especially effective when drivers refuse to pull over or are slow to pull over.
Limitations of smart road applications
Unfortunately, in order for them to be effective, the majority of vehicles, if not all, will need to use smart communications. Many experts agree that the recent accidents with Telsa autonomous vehicles could have been prevented if the other vehicles on the road could have communicated with each other. It may take a few years to get to a point where there are enough vehicles on the road where the smart road applications above will become possible.
How soon will smart road applications become a reality?
These smart road applications may be available within the next several years. It’s not too far off until this could become a reality on the road. In the U.S., the Department of Transportation may require all new cars to implement vehicle to vehicle communication by 2023.
In fact, many cities are installing such solutions. However, depending on the solution you use, it can take a significant investment of time and money before solutions are ready. That’s why ACiiST designed a smart city infrastructure that uses existing city applications so it’s easier, quicker and more cost-effective to install.
ACiiST Solutions
When building a smart road infrastructure that can support a variety of applications, ACiiST innovated a solution that is easy to implement, cost-effective and can handle all of smart road application needs. It also provides power, has a high latency 100 times better compared to a routing-based solution, and is wireless so that it requires less cabling.
Unlike our competition, ACiiST solves the problem of building a smart city system with small devices that can be installed in existing light posts. That way, you can quickly and easily set up a smart city network without installing additional infrastructure that is costly and time-extensive to produce. It can handle high bandwidth, offers a power source available 24/, and is weatherproof even in severe environmental conditions. s
Case Study: Smart Roads
When it came to building a smart highway, Ayalon Highway needed a smart city solution that would not disrupt traffic and would not destroy the road. Ayalon Highway is the busiest highway in Israel, and so they needed a smart city infrastructure to be deployed faster, cheaper, and with minimal disruption. ACiiST was able to implement our light post technology on Ayalon Highway, creating the first smart road in Israel.
Contact Us For More Information
Smart cities are the way to the future and will bring so many benefits to society. However, there are quite a few challenges to bring them to reality. Cities need an infrastructure that can support scalable growth, remain secure, and all at a reasonable timeline and budget. By using existing city infrastructure, ACiiST makes it as simple as possible to implement a smart city system. Contact us to learn more about how our solution and to see if it is right for your smart city application needs.
