Predictive Traffic Safety from AI AWARE Accelerates in the US

In 2017, the first of a series of projects was created, forming a complete project suite called AD Aware. In this project suite, AD stands for Autonomous Driving, but the parties have not focused mainly on these technologies. Instead, it has been more about connected vehicles' ability to perceive and communicate accidents, challenging traffic situations, and difficult road conditions to other drivers, emergency services, and dispatch vehicles, thereby increasing traffic safety.

Kristian Jaldemark from Carmenta has been involved in all projects in the suite, and according to him, there are several things to be proud of:

“Within the projects, we have practically tested solutions that then have been taken further within the participating organizations all the way to actually being commercialized. We have challenged the market a bit, and it has yielded results.”

According to Kristian, the collaboration format in the projects has been unique:

“Drive Sweden has provided the framework for how we can work, and then we have succeeded at creating structures that work in all the projects. This makes it easier to onboard new partners.”

Some of the issues that have been addressed include how different parties, which may be competitors, share their data. This has involved issues related to intellectual property rights (IPR) and different parties' APIs – something that is becoming increasingly common today as collaboration is crucial to make digital solutions as efficient as possible. In these projects, this has been resolved through good agreements.

After producing impressive results in the first five projects, in the form of functional systems that allow cars to use the data they already collect to contribute to increased traffic safety, the core partners have taken new steps. In the recent projects, AI AWARE and AI AWARE Scale-Up, they have explored how AI can assist in assessing road conditions, processing the data it receives, aggregating it with data from nearby vehicles, and, when necessary, notifying other drivers and relevant stakeholders of potential future accidents or other issues. Once again, they are using existing data, but through AI, they can effectively process it and calculate what may happen. In the first project, they made the system work, and in the subsequent project, AI AWARE Scale-Up, they have expanded their efforts and also established a presence in California.

“What we are going to show now is how the solution can be used in various contexts. The algorithm is being further developed and tested in a completely different setting. Moving to a completely different geographic location is important to know that it works in other environments with different conditions,” says Kristian Jaldemark, who also mentions that they are creating a Safe Speed Information Service that can convey appropriate speeds depending on weather, heat, and other factors. In this way, accidents can be avoided, safety increased, and energy consumption reduced.

The technology is highly interesting, and for Volvo Cars, the coordinating partner, it is a natural step to explore it.

“I see this as a first, very important step on a long journey toward a fully connected mobility system with zero collisions. By interconnecting more and more data streams, predictive possibilities with AI and machine learning will only improve. This will be a crucial part of a sustainable and safe mobility system,” says Johan Amoruso-Wennerby at Volvo Cars, who leads the project.

For Volvo Cars and the project, there are many aspects to be explored, and once again, it is cooperation, even between countries, that can provide significant advantages for successful development.

“As part of the project, we are also analyzing the differences in data governance and data sharing policies between the USA and Sweden. We also aim to further increase the connections between the Smart Mobility ecosystems in Silicon Valley and Sweden. With this, we hope to bring back valuable lessons to the Swedish ecosystem.”

Volvo Cars has been an important partner in all the AD AWARE projects. Their involvement has opened the door to testing the new technologies in real environments. But Zenseact, Ericsson, and Carmenta have also played significant roles in getting sensors to collect the right data, making communication work, and making traffic monitoring useful. Moreover, advanced technologies like HD maps have been incorporated into the project through HERE Technologies, and partners such as Trafikverket and the City of Gothenburg have contributed with expertise in digital infrastructure, among other things.

Several tests within the project series have become products used in the market, which is a testament to their great success. What remains to be explored is yet to be seen, but the expectations of more practical solutions contributing to a safer and more sustainable transportation system are high.

The following projects have been conducted within the project suite AD AWARE:

• AD AWARE Traffic Control
• Traffic Management of Emergency Vehicles
• Advanced Cooperative Driver Assistance
• CeViss – Cloud Enhanced Cooperative Traffic Safety Using Vehicle Sensor Data
• AI AWARE
• AI AWARE Scale-up

All projects have been financed by Drive Sweden, and Future Mobility is also a co-financer for AI Aware Scale-Up.