1 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 VII & Road Weather Pat Kennedy, Transportation Specialist FHWA/Office of Operations, Washington DC Ben McKeever, ITS Specialist RITA/JPO, Washington DC

2 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 VII Vision Provide a mechanism for wirelessly sending and receiving information to and from vehicles, and between vehicles to: –Improve safety Vehicle-to-vehicle warnings and collision mitigation solutions Roadside-to-vehicle warnings: intersections; roadway weather, incidents, etc. –Improve mobility Rich source of traffic information Better system management; (improved signal timing; control of traffic flow; more responsive and efficient roadway maintenance) Flexible and efficient tolling concepts (congestion pricing, etc.) –Allows for commercial operations…. private services to offset operating costs Concierge type services Vehicle warranty and diagnostics Other commerce applications (payments and advisories)

3 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 VII Proof of Concept Test Goals Safety....System is capable of saving lives Mobility….System is capable of reducing congestion Private Services….System supports delivery of private services to drivers Security….System is robust against intrusions and attacks Maintainability….System is life cycle maintainable Reliability….System is robust against failures and fails gracefully

4 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Detroit POC Test Environment Next exit services, traveler information Navigation, rerouting Parking School zone Tolling Speed limit, icy bridge, curve ahead Safety link testing

5 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 VII Network 2 Service Delivery Nodes 1 Operations Center 3 types of backhaul 55 RSEs

6 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Vehicle Test Fleet VII Test Fleet 25 Vehicles of 4 different makes 10 OEM vehicles

7 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 POC Summary POC testing to date indicates that the majority of the original technical viability criteria can be met with the current architecture. Changes to the standards and technical enhancements will be required. To date, the development and test teams have found no major technical obstacles to deployment of the VII System concept as original envisioned.

8 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Weather and Environment Applications Standard Message Format Applications Weather & Environmental Information NWS forecast Private forecast Road weather management Traveler info providers wipers brakes traction location emissions

9 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Next Steps for VII Program 1.Stabilize Detroit testbed 2.Make other testbeds available 3.Initiate V2V research (public meeting) 4.Alternatives analysis 5.Standards/interoperability 6.Probe data applications workshop 7.Weather data analysis 8.Technology scan 9.Open architecture development

10 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Exploring Truck-based Telemetry and Sensor Data Over 8 million long haul trucks registered in the U.S. These account for –3.5% of all vehicles –7% of all vehicle miles traveled –11% of all fatal crashes Nearly 500,000 long haul trucks contain transponders to transmit real-time vehicle operating characteristics & environmental conditions

11 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Forecast Truck Usage Truck Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) to 2020 Forecast generated for FHWA, Office of Policy, by WEFA, Inc. Forecast

12 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Research Focus Using passenger vehicles as data probes appears feasible This research will focus on using probe data from long haul trucks as a supplemental data set. –Trucks operate 24 hours/day –in all weather conditions –for longer hauls/distances than most passenger vehicles

13 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Research Objectives Assess the utility of commercial vehicle data for surface weather applications Evaluate the practicality and value of continued truck-based research Provide a foundation for the weather community on what data are currently available and what might be needed in the future

14 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Research Team FHWA is contracting with the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) –Coordinate with at least 3 trucking companies –Establish agreements to capture probe data –Collect information on probe data elements and formats –Protect commercially sensitive data and effectively address institutional challenges related to data access/dissemination –Provide a feasibility study on how truck-based data could be used to support surface transportation weather research

15 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Research Team FHWA has contracted with NCAR who will –Receive the truck probe data from ATRI –Analyze the data for scientific validity and quality –Compare the probe data with established in situ and remote observation data sets –Provide a feasibility report on whether to pursue additional research

16 NTOC Talking Operations – Road Weather Management – September 30, 2008 Milestones The FHWA contract with NCAR is already in place The ATRI contract is currently being finalized. Period of Performance (PoP) is 9 months.