Speed Management |
With Singapore hosting
the 26th ITS World
Congress in October,
one of the main streams at
the conference will be Safety
for Drivers & Vulnerable
Users, which will include
presentations on the subject of
Speed Advice & Restriction.
As well attending various
sessions on intelligent mobility,
The vehicle’s intelligent cameras
will detect the explicit speed limits
even when there is no GPS around
Matthias Seidl, head of vehicle regulation, TRL
Top right: ISA systems
can be overriden via
a kick-down of the
accelerator pedal
attendees can also take part
in a C-ITS and V2X workshop
(Wednesday October 23, 2019,
09:00 – 10:30, Room 324),
organized by ERTICO-ITS
Europe, which will investigate
the platform on which it is
hoped ISA technologies will
flourish in the future.
Another ERTICO session
on the same day (from 14:00
– 17:30) will focus on the role
that 5G and the IoT will play
in digitally transforming the
automotive sector.
To learn more about any of
the presentations, sessions,
demonstrations or workshops,
and to register to attend,
visit the ITS World
Congress home page at
itsworldcongress2019.com.
Assistance in Singapore
Intelligent Speed Assistance will be one of the many topics
under discussion at the ITS World Congress this October
Mr McPhail, who has worked for
Zurich Insurance for 15 years,
explains. “This system relies on
camera recognition technology being
able to detect the speed signs and
GPS/map data. That information is
relayed to the system which regulates
the power available to the vehicle.
But what if the vehicle suddenly loses
GPS connectivity?
“There’s the rub,” he says. “As
the vehicle does not have the correct
information the driver does not know
what the vehicle will do in that
scenario. It may revert back to nonlimited
speed mode. If it does, the
driver may still have his foot firmly
pressed down on the accelerator.
He might not be able to make the
necessary adjustment which
increases the chance of a collision.”
Technology to the rescue?
TRL’s Matthias Seidl says the
collaboration of different
technologies will prevent the
nightmare scenario painted by Mr
McPhail from happening. He says
that the vehicle’s intelligent cameras
“will detect the explicit speed limits
even when there is no GPS around”.
However, Mr Seidl adds, “When
entering a built-up area, support
from map data will be required in
some cases. But, whatever the
circumstances, I don’t believe that
GPS cutting out for short periods
would present an issue.
He continues, “If the vehicle is
positioned incorrectly – for example –
in an urban canyon – the vehicle
manufacturer would need to solve
the problem by creating an algorithm
which would harmonize both the
camera-inputs and the map data.”
But, the ISA system, which TRL
says will only cost manufacturers an
fines, rather than an annoyance”,
and “system performance in many
new vehicles has already become
very good”.
But, not everyone agrees. Take
Calum McPhail, the head of liability
at Zurich Insurance, for example. Mr
McPhail, an expert in motor and
technical casualty liability claims is
concerned that the technology needed
to make ISA system work “may not be
robust or resilient enough to handle
every possible use case or weather
scenario” it encounters. He thinks
that “there is no guarantee of
premiums automatically going
down, immediately, as a result
of this technology”.
closely. Ideally, a driver being
close-followed should pullover
to a safe place and let
the tailgater pass but that
rarely happened. ISA
technology as part of
a suite of driver
assistance systems
might address this
issue by helping to
regulate vehicle speeds
and reduce the
likelihood of close
following.”
Public acceptance
Much depends on the
general public accepting the
technology. In this respect,
automakers and regulators are
hedging their bets. While the system
will be a compulsory requirement in
all new vehicles in the EU in three
years’ time, it can according to TRL
“be switched on and off by the
driver”. Secondly, TRL says that
“even if ISA system is being used, it
can always be overridden by the
driver by a kick-down of the
accelerator pedal”.
However, despite this, Matthias
Seidl, head of vehicle regulation for
TRL, maintains that market demand
for ISA systems appears to show
that many drivers “accept them
as a useful aid to avoid speeding
042 Traffic Technology International September/October 2019
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
/itsworldcongress2019.com
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