Great advances have been made in recent years in the engineering and design of safer vehicles and highways. Transportation experts recognize that far greater public and private sector benefits will result by connecting increasingly sophisticated active safety and communications systems on modern vehicles with real-time information gathered within the highway environment itself, using embedded roadway sensors or other intelligent transportation systems.
The goal of national Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII), which uses high speed, high capacity wireless technology, is to enhance highway user safety by allowing “smart” vehicles and highway infrastructure to communicate information to the driver. VII technology can provide a wide range of communications to the driver including safety warning of potential hazards and general traveler information. For commercial vehicles, such high-speed, wireless communications can also be used to improve vehicle productivity and contribute to improved fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.
The Volvo-led effort for the state of New York, funded by the I-95 Corridor Coalition in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, is the first VII program exclusively devoted to developing and demonstrating the technology for commercial vehicles. The program will demonstrate VII applications for commercial vehicles along key transportation corridors in the greater New York City region. Test corridors, utilizing 5.9 GHz dedicated short range communications, include 13 miles of the New York State Thruway Authority’s I-87 Spring Valley Corridor and 42 miles of NYSDOT’s I-495 Long Island Expressway.
VII technology uses real-time data to present drivers with greater awareness of events in the vehicle’s environment, and to deliver this information in an intuitive, easy-to-grasp fashion, with clear advice or warnings. High-speed communications can also be used in CVII to meet specific requirements for commercial vehicles. The Volvo-led program will test enhanced vehicle security, demonstrating driver identification and verification using TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential, an identity card issued by the Transportation Security Administration) and biometric readers to restrict vehicle operation to authorized drivers only. The program will also test the ability to gather real-time information about important vehicle safety components, such as brake condition.
The CVII team is led by Volvo Technology North America and includes Booz Allen Hamilton, Kapsch TrafficCom, Cambridge Systematics, Southwest Research Institute, and Fitzgerald & Halliday. A program advisory team will include representatives from federal, regional, and state transportation agencies as well as industry representatives including the New York State Motor Truck Association.
Volvo Technology and other Volvo Group companies have extensive experience with numerous ITS technologies. Many of these programs have a strong focus on optimizing the “human-machine interface,” to provide critical information to drivers in the most effective way. Specifically for VII-based technologies, Volvo is involved in a number of other programs in Europe and North America. In Europe, this includes Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems, SAFESPOT, HAVEit, PRE-DRIVE C2X, and the CAR 2 CAR Communications Consortium. In the U.S., this also includes the Trusted Truck®.
Volvo Technology North America is a member of the Volvo Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services, and is one of the world’s leading producers of heavy-diesel engines (9-16 liter). The Group also provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group, which employs about 100,000 people, has production facilities in 19 countries and sells its products in more than 180 markets, including a presence in New York City. Annual sales of the Volvo Group amount to more than $46 billion. The Volvo Group is a publicly-held company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange and are traded OTC in the US.
June 9, 2009
For further information, please contact:
Marjorie A. Meyers
Director, Corporate Communications
Telephone: 212-418-7434
Email: marjorie.meyers@volvo.com
