High drive for data

Transcription

High drive for data

Issue 01 | 2014 | siemens.com/mobility
ITS magazine
The Magazine for Intelligent Traffic Systems
High drive for data
How modern information technology
helps optimize road traffic
Future 2Go
Which municipalities stand
to profit the most from traffic
control via the Internet?
“What are the concrete benefits
promised by the digital networking
of traffic? And what contributions
can the different stakeholders make?”
Editorial | ITS magazine 1/2014
Dear Reader,
Coining new words can be tricky, as we
all know. This was recently illustrated
in various TV features on this year’s
CeBIT trade fair, by the sometimes
rather entertaining attempts of industry experts to explain the neologism
‘Datability’, which had been chosen
as the motto for the event.
Five years earlier, the exhibition
organizers’ linguistic imagination had
been a bit less of a challenge. At that
time, the headline for the world’s leading computer trade fair was doubtless
easier to interpret: ‘Webciety’ – networked society. Back then, the trade
association BITKOM provided impressive numbers demonstrating the
degree to which our daily lives were
already being shaped by the Internet
in 2009. Even then, the Internet and
the mobile phone were more important to young people than their current relationship.
By now, the Web has long since
entered the world of mobility. Thanks
to ever more sophisticated systems for
car2X communication, traffic management systems can rely on increasing
volumes of real-time data, which enable
not only a more efficient use of the
available road infrastructure, but also
help improve road safety. Traffic control via Internet, too, has turned from
a futuristic vision to virtual reality.
In the fall issue of our magazine,
we explored the question of how
much individuality is left in individual
transport in the face of the continuing
automation of automobile travel. This
time we are addressing a different
topic: on the one hand, the concrete –
including financial – benefits promised
by the digital networking of traffic
systems, and on the other hand, the
different contributions of various
stakeholders in this field.
The answers are provided by experts
who ought to know, for example Professor Dr. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, longstanding President of the Fraunhofer
Gesellschaft, a research institute that
is playing a central role in the European innovation process. Plus other
top-level representatives of the major
industries involved, such as IT specialists like Microsoft, SAP or IBM, car
manufacturers like Ford or Toyota,
and leading automotive suppliers
like Bosch.
As always, I hope you enjoy the read.
Sincerely,
Markus Schlitt
3
ITS magazine 3/2012 | Focus
Content
06
Focus
06 14
“Every euro invested brings a return of
eight euros”
Professor Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of the
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft from 2002 to 2012, talks
about the current state of progress in building
ICT-networked transport systems and their benefit
fora mobile society
“A completely new dimension for mobility”
Statements of leading representatives from
different industries on the future progress of
the digital revolution in mobility
20
Trends & Events
20
Smart future
Even more impressive than the quantity was the
quality of the exhibits at the Intertraffic, especially
those paving the way to the ‘smart traffic’ of the future
23
The smart X Class
The new Sitraffic sX traffic controller is setting
completely new standards in terms of user-friendliness, flexibility, connectivity and efficiency
Partners & Projects
24Shortcuts
4
Traffic engineering news from Brazil, Abu Dhabi,
Sweden and Germany
Focus | ITS magazine 3/2012
Progress through
cooperation
Owing to innovative communication technologies, road traffic is
increasingly turning into a team
sport. The new team spirit benefits
not only the drivers themselves,
but also the responsible traffic
authorities
28
Knowledge & Research
26
Boomtime for know-it-alls
If traffic information was a currency, it would
have hit one all-time high after another in recent
years. And there is no end in sight to this bull
market – on the contrary
30
Profile
30
“The basic direction has been set”
Markus Schlitt, Head of Siemens Intelligent Traffic
Systems (ITS) since October 1, 2013, talks about his
plans to follow a path of dynamic continuity, the
unique synergy effects within a highly diversified
corporation, and what would be the greatest nightmare scenario for him as a keen driver
Mobility & Living Space
28
Future 2Go
It goes to show how quickly some futuristic visions
can turn into virtual reality: An innovative webbased mobile traffic control center allows municipal
traffic technicians to control and monitor their traffic
infrastructure while on the road – even if their town
does not operate a traffic computer of its own
Rubrics
25
In the side-view mirror
Reflections and lateral thoughts about networked
mobility: “Speak to me!”
32Imprint
5
“Every euro invested
brings a return
1
Interview Professor Dr. Hans-Jörg Bullinger,
President of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
from 2002 to 2012 and named “Manager of
the Year” in 2009 by a leading German
6
of eight euros”
financial journal, talks about the current
state of progress in building ICT-networked
transport systems – and their benefit for
a mobile society.
7
“The data are used exclusively for
driver information. There is no
automatic intervention that would
be comparable to automatically
switching on a washing machine”
Professor Bullinger, the world of
communications is on the brink of
switching from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0,
where machines will be able to process the information collected by
humans. In the world of traffic management for instance, experiments
with so-called Floating Car Data
(FCD) have been under way for some
time. Is the world of mobility actually a step ahead of the Internet?
Yes and no. For many years, mobility
research has been looking into the
technical possibilities for networking
road users. Key research topics are,
for instance, the special technologies
needed for car-to-X communication,
in which vehicles and highway infrastructure talk directly to each other,
or the options of FCD that you allude
to. However, the data that is gathered
and aggregated are always used exclusively for providing information to the
driver. For safety reasons there is no
automatic intervention that would be
comparable to automatically switching on a washing machine. By contrast,
the automotive manufacturers and
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suppliers have been far-sighted in
their creation of a uniform standard.
Already at an early stage they recognized that networking will never function if isolated proprietary solutions
are implemented: It requires a common basis. This basis for networked
communication, the IEEE 802.11p
standard, was validated in the biggest European field test called simTD
(Secure Intelligent Mobility – Test
Field Germany) and carried out with
the involvement of the Fraunhofer
institutes FOKUS, IESE, SIT and AISEC,
among others. From 2015, the standard will be introduced in all new cars
manufactured by the member companies of the Car-2-Car Communication
Consortium (www.car-2-car.org).
What’s exciting here is that every
manufacturer is developing specific
services and customer value propositions on this basis and hence, despite
the joint introduction in the market,
each company can create their own
unique selling points. Tools developed
by the Fraunhofer institutes, for
instance the VSimRTI simulation
environment, enable the early demonstration of the new services’ potential and help make their development
more rapid and robust.
In your book “Morgenstadt” (“City of
Tomorrow”) you state that the opportunities being created by modern communications processes can
be put to astonishing use in the
transport sector and are providing
options that were not even thinkable 30 years ago. When you wrote
those words, what were the specific
applications that you had in mind?
First and foremost, networking means
information exchange in near real time
and hence more dynamic and more
closely needs-based control. Besides classic risk and congestion warnings, we can
imagine the creation of dynamic environmental zones. Until now these zones
have been static and generally lack effectiveness, despite the fact that environmental pollution indicators are available
in real time already today. If the measurement system was connected to the vehicles, drivers could be presented with
alternative route suggestions at times
of high environmental pollution. Simultaneously, drivers of hybrid vehicles
could be encouraged to switch to fullelectric mode and would then be free
to continue on their route through
affected zones.
Bill Ford, the great-grandson of
Henry Ford, has similar ideas about
the future of mobility. In his view,
every automobile should be regarded as a rolling smartphone, in other
words, as part of a giant network.
How far are we from this scenario?
Not so very far. In the Memorandum
of Understanding issued by the Car-2Car Communication Consortium, all
vehicle manufacturers have accepted
an obligation to install car-to-X communications technology in their new
vehicles from 2015. Daimler has
already made longer strides and
announced the technology when
presenting the new S Class. The vehicles are transparently linked using the
UMTS/LTE-based backend. In part this
was made possible thanks to joint projects with the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft,
in which the Fraunhofer FOKUS institute under the leadership of Dr. Ilja
Radusch evaluated the potential – and
limits – of ‘combined’ communication.
When the discussion turns to the
development of interdisciplinary
solutions for transport systems,
Ford insists on the active involvement not only of motor manufacturers and mobility leaders, but
also of telecommunications service
providers. What might be the best
possible distribution of tasks
among these three players?
Function diagram Cooperative Systems: “The objective
of increasing road safety,
for instance through risk or
congestion warnings, is the
most important driver of
innovations in this field”
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This is an open question that has to be
examined in different ways, especially
for reasons of data privacy. It appears
very sensible to define clearly who will
receive which types of data in order
to offer the corresponding services.
Since, already today, telecommunications providers are prepared – under
legal obligation – to disclose a wide
range of private data, even to foreign
authorities, their task should as far as
possible be limited to the provision of
an encrypted communications service.
Vehicle manufacturers agreed at an
early stage to implement a pseudonymized communications system aimed
at keeping the private sphere secure.
In concrete terms this means that in
systems based on the car-to-X communications standard, no road user can
be directly identified since he or she is
active only under rapidly changing
pseudonyms. It’s as though you introduced yourself successively to several
people at a reception, using a different
name every time. Your contacts know
that you are an invited guest but
they have no means of finding out
whom else you have been speaking
to throughout the evening.
The effects of cooperative systems
have already been researched in
numerous pilot projects, for instance
the simTD in Germany that you mentioned earlier. In Austria there was
a similar field trial in the so-called
‘Testfeld Telematik’. How would you
assess the results?
simTD in Germany was a great success.
Not only did it validate the technical
maturity of car-to-X communication
and the applications that are based
on it, but it also quite clearly demonstrated the benefits that the new functions will generate for mobile society.
On the one hand, the applications
help prevent accidents, making driving
and road use safer; on the other hand,
they shorten travel times, which in
turn benefits the environment by cutting traffic-related pollutant emissions.
From your perspective, what is the
most important driver for innovations
in this field: the wish to increase
road safety – or the fear of urban
gridlock in the near future and the
environmental impact resulting
from it?
Quite definitely the increase in road
safety. Despite rising traffic volumes,
we are recording a constant decrease
in traffic-related deaths on the world’s
highways. But for the European Commission’s pursuit of Vision Zero – the
reduction in the number of traffic
deaths to nil – to actually succeed,
minor evolutionary steps are no longer of any use. Achieving this goal
requires the ‘revolutionary’ car-to-X
communication, as well as current
visionary developments such as
highly-automated driving.
It’s probably also quite a simple
matter to pinpoint the biggest
o bstacle. In your eyes, how easy
or difficult will the financing of such
systems be?
The vehicle manufacturers simply
factor the cost in to their pricing. For
them, the services that can be bolted
onto car-to-X are an opportunity to
differentiate their products from those
of the competition. In the public
sphere, the overall economic benefit
ought to be reason enough to finance
the required infrastructure. In the
simTD project context, it was possible
to show that every euro invested in
infrastructure in this field by the Federal government and the individual
German Länder creates an economic
“Pseudonymized communication
keeps the private sphere secure. It’s
as though you introduced yourself
to several people at a reception,
using a different name every time”
10
benefit of eight euros, in the form of
fewer accidents and traffic deaths as
well as reduced congestion, among
other things. To give a comparison,
those speed limit signs that the authorities tend to erect so quickly and generously, have an economic benefit
ratio of only one to three or less.
According to your observations, are
there certain countries or regions
that are working more intensively
on this topic?
Car-to-X communication is being both
discussed and introduced worldwide.
Recently the US Transport Ministry has
decided that car-to-X communication
should be obligatory. In Europe the
implementation of the ITS corridor
from the Netherlands via Germany
to Austria represents the next step.
How many vehicles would actually
have to be equipped with suitable
on-board data communication units
for the first positive effects to show
themselves?
As a scientist I naturally have to
respond: “It depends” – especially on
the type of service that is to be implemented. Our simulations using the
VSimRTI software from the Fraunhofer
FOKUS institute tends to show that
most applications need five to seven
percent of vehicles to be equipped
with these devices. The installation
of more and more roadside stations,
i.e. the communications terminals
positioned at traffic signals, motorway
junctions and so on, could significantly
reduce this percentage. Another example is the roadworks warning system
that is due to be introduced in the ITS
corridor. If all roadworks sites in the
area of the corridor were to be suitably
equipped, the benefit would be felt
by the very first vehicle equipped to
receive the message.
What are the next milestones to
be reached on the way to a perfectly
networked mobility system?
Rapid market penetration by car-to-X
communication is of course one of
them. This is the task not only of the
automobile industry but also of various public bodies. They need to build
more roadside stations and, where
Model construction at the
Fraunhofer FOKUS institute:
“Our research interests include
the collection and analysis of
Big Mobility Data, data privacy
and secure identities, as well as
validation and standardization”
Mobility research at Fraunhofer
Currently numbering some 67 institutes and independent research
centers as well as over 23,000 staff, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft plays
a central part in the innovation process in Germany and Europe in general. Dr. Ilja Radusch, head of the department of Automotive Services
and Communication Technologies (ASCT) at the Fraunhofer FOKUS
institute, outlines a few current research themes in the field of mobility.
People want to move around as
speedily, safely and comfortably
as possible and with minimum
impact on the environment. But
in doing so they have differing
needs and priorities. Information
and communication technologies enable individual solutions
that are integrated into an efficient system of transport planning. The basis for this is secure
communication between all
road users, sensors in the roadside environment and traffic
management centers, as well as
the intelligent analysis and distribution of the information gathered from all these sources. Current Fraunhofer research topics
include the following:
• Generation and processing of
Big Mobility Data: Effective
transport planning has to take
account of a wide range of realtime data, for example about
accidents, major events and the
weather. The VSimRTI simulation environment is able to
generate and correlate these
data in a way that reflects
reality in order to assess the
effects on traffic. Depending
on the application case, the most
appropriate simulators are linked
together dynamically and, if necessary, with differing levels of detail.
VSimRTI also enables the simulation and evaluation of the impact
of new applications in the context
of the intended environment.
•Data privacy and secure identities:
The route taken by a given vehicle,
especially a private one, and the
place where it parks fall within the
driver’s private sphere. Fraunhofer
FOKUS has developed a security
architecture that pseudonymizes
the driver so that while it is possible to track routes and locate stopping places, they are not assigned
to any individual. Furthermore,
encryption is used for transmitting
the streams of data exchanged
between different road users and
between road users and the traffic
management center. Connecting
the car to the Internet enables
new infotainment offerings such
as the use of video platforms. This
requires secure authentication, for
instance using the corresponding
function of the new German ID
card. These issues are being explored
further in the ‘Next Generation ID’
innovation cluster, pooling the
expertise of five Fraunhofer institutes, universities, numerous
industry partners as well as the
states of Berlin and Brandenburg.
•Validation and standardization:
Not only a vehicle’s own functions and communication network must operate reliably, but
also the embedding of the individual vehicle into multi-vehicle
networks. To this purpose,
Fraunhofer FOKUS has developed a complete suite of tools
for validating hard- and software
components in field tests (the
ITEF tool) as well as a test-bed
for systematic testing of interoperability and conformity for vehicle-to-X communication. The
test-bed supports quality assurance and certification of such
systems. The ITEF tool provides a
uniform synopsis of test scenarios and results as well as further
processing options. Standards
are vital to ensure interopera
bility of the communications
devices used by different road
users. In this field, the Fraunhofer
researchers are involved in the
work of ETSI and the CAR 2 CAR
Communication Consortium,
among others.
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appropriate, open up existing systems
for extended communications. Many
of the traffic management centers in
Germany – which are widely scattered,
as befits our federal structure – already
collect comprehensive traffic data, but
only a few of them are prepared to
make these available as ‘Open Data’.
Our Open Data experts, including
those from the Fraunhofer FOKUS
institute, see significant potential for
new startup companies and jobs if
more public data is made available.
At the German Congress on Traffic
Law in Goslar, one of the issues
discussed was the question of
ownership of all the data that will
be passing back and forth. Do you
have an answer to that?
As this is not among the objects of
research at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft,
the matter affects me only to the
extent that I am a normal road user.
As such my view is fairly relaxed, precisely because the systems involve
pseudonymous information.
Whether cooperative systems will
fulfil the high expectations placed
on them is of course dependent
on their acceptance among road
users. What are the criteria that will
decide what they think of the extra
information?
In the simTD and other projects, the
acceptance of the systems was of
course investigated. The results were
thoroughly positive. The road user’s
favorite is normally the signal-phase
assistant. But, as explained earlier,
the implementation of this device is
only possible if the traffic management centers open up their data pools.
In the media, especially of the tabloid type, there has been repeated
speculation about possible hacker
attacks on onboard vehicle systems, or on the entire networked
traffic system. Is this a real risk in
your eyes?
If no action were taken against it,
then yes. But in fact, defense lines
have been installed from the outset,
for instance by internally isolating the
systems. As things stand now, they
perform the simple task of either
informing or warning the driver;
there are no direct interventions in
the vehicle itself.
In some countries, even the planned
EU-wide eCall system, which reports
the positions of vehicles involved in
serious accidents to a control center,
is being viewed with skepticism.
What reaction do you expect from
the man on the street faced with
the idea that in future, he should
be permanently sending data to the
infrastructure?
eCall and car-to-X communication are
two fundamentally different systems
that have nothing to do with each
other. Thanks to pseudonymization
as described at the outset, the information transmitted from car to infrastructure and to other cars presents
no risk at all from the data privacy
point of view. By the way, we mustn’t
forget that user positioning is not a
totally new problem. Many of the citizens who are suddenly struck by
despair when faced with this scenario,
nevertheless carry a mobile phone
around with them that makes them
easily locatable and traceable to
within a few meters. Credit card use
also presents opportunities for determining location.
Where is the boundary between
taking a trip while integrated in a
networked system, and autonomous driving?
Both systems – highly automated
driving and car-to-X communication –
are capable of complementing one
another outstandingly well in cooper
ative driving maneuvers. This has al
ready been researched in EU projects
such as TEAM (www.collaborativeteam.eu – coordinated by Fraunhofer
FOKUS). In this context it is important
to bear in mind that there is never any
question of remote control via communication systems. Local sensor systems always use technical means to
prevent an incident. However, the job
of communication is to enable a more
direct transmission of the driver’s
intention – for example, “I wish to turn
left” – so that it does not have to be
deduced using only cameras and
‘direction indicator recognition’.
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Professor Bullinger, thank you very
much for talking to us.
Signal phase information, mobile
devices, navigation satellite: “In
the simTD and other projects, the
acceptance of the systems was of
course investigated. The results
were thoroughly positive”
Personal background
Professor Dr. Hans-Jörg Bullinger
was President of the Fraunhofer
Gesellschaft in Munich from
2002 to 2012; in 2013 he was
named Senator of that institution. After his studies in mechanical engineering, he received a
doctorate and completed his
postdoctoral fellowship, qualifying as a lecturer at the University
of Stuttgart. He soon took up
leading positions in applied
research and teaching. He was
founder of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering
and Organization (IAO), which
he led for 20 years, and the Institute for Labor Science and Technology Management (IAT) at the
University of Stuttgart. Together
with Dr. Arend Oetker, Professor
Bullinger is chairman of the
economy and science research
group at the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research, which
is the central consulting body for
innovation policy and for guiding the implementation and
further development of Germany’s ‘High-tech Strategy 2020’.
He is also a member of the European Commission’s European
Research and Innovation Area
Board (ERIAB), a member of the
university council of the Hagen
distance-learning university and
a Fellow of the Royal Academy
of Engineering in the UK.
For his personal commitment,
Professor Bullinger has received
numerous awards and several
honorary doctorates, as well as
an honorary professorship. In
2009, manager magazine voted
him ‘Manager of the Year’ and in
2013 he was inducted into the
Hall of Fame of German Research.
13
“A completely
new dimension
for mobility”
Statements “How will the growing impact of information technology
change mobility in the next 10, 25 or 50 years – not only in terms of vehicle
equipment, but also with respect to traffic control, traffic management
and traffic information?” This is the question that the ITS magazine asked
some of the driving forces behind the digital revolution on wheels. And
although the respondents represent quite different sectors, their answers
make one thing clear: They are all pursuing a common goal.
14
VDA
SAP
Matthias Wissmann
Michael Kleinemeier
Former German Federal Transport Minister and
current President of the German Motor Industry
Association (Verband der Automobilindustrie/VDA)
President, SAP Middle & Eastern Europe
For every country throughout the world, free-flowing
and safe traffic is a central pillar for economic growth
and prosperity. To exploit the opportunities that
information technology presents for the optimization
of mobility, the traffic of the future must be intelligently networked. Owing to the new possibilities of
the digital revolution, vehicles are becoming more
and more intelligent. The interaction between different modes of transport and the infrastructure is a
positive effect of the mobility evolution.
Networking facilitates precise control of freight
transport over large distances and using different
modes. Of course, there is no way of knowing
already today what transport networking might look
like in 20 years’ time. However, it is certain that information exchange and communication will be playing
a prominent role. Those technical innovations that
the German automotive industry is pursuing with
intent, will achieve further increases in vehicle safety,
environmental friendliness and driver convenience.
We will come ever closer to the vision of accidentfree motoring.
Increasingly powerful on-board electronics enable
everything from modern driver assistance and infotainment systems right through to partly or highly
automated driving functions. The integration of
additional information from infrastructure equipment,
other road users and service providers via vehicleto-vehicle communication (V2X communication) is
supporting this development.
Developing networked mobility as a motor for economic growth and at the same time protecting the
climate – these are tomorrow’s challenges for urban
mobility. The transport concepts of the future must
integrate the developments of a world in change.
An idea that we know from the world of movies will
soon become hard reality: highly autonomous driving,
i.e. the ability of a vehicle to take its occupants to a
destination in a safer and more anticipatory manner
without needing a person to take the wheel. For this
scenario to become reality, powerful information
technology (IT) is essential. The developments in IT
and the automotive sector are mutually dependent:
While vehicles are already equipped with devices such
as sensors and cameras that are constantly generating
data, processing and analyzing these data remains a
challenge. At the time of writing, only specialized
solutions are capable of analyzing these data streams
against the background of geographical data.
For safe autonomous driving, a vehicle must be able to
instantly recognize any anomalies and disruptions in
both its own operation and that of the traffic network
and immediately make the appropriate response. To do
this, it needs to process the available real-time data to
generate relevant information from which to derive the
right actions. The future task of IT will be to reduce
processing times and latency to a minimum. To maintain the flow of traffic, the vehicle must be able to predict dynamic changes in traffic density, for example due
to congestion and roadworks, on the basis of aggregated vehicle travel logs and public data.
A reliable and fast technology platform as the link
between vehicles and communication hubs is essential
for this task. On top of this, IT will be able to help minimize vehicle downtimes by supplying data for preventive
vehicle maintenance. The insights gained from practice
should then also be used in the product design and quality processes to directly improve automotive development and manufacture and hence enable safe autonomous driving. SAP provides an extraordinarily powerful
real-time data platform and is working with the industry
on a first generation of solutions that should permit
this extended scenario, or parts of it, to become reality.
15
Microsoft
Dr. Christian P. Illek
Chairman of the Board, Microsoft Germany
Through the integration of modern information
technology – Big Data is the buzzword – we are
transforming the vehicle of the future into an intelligent system that provides greater convenience and
safety and is able to communicate not only with its
driver, but also with other vehicles and the traffic
infrastructure. Taking feeds from many sensors and
GPS, vehicles generate gigabytes of information
with every hour on the road – about the environment, the drivers and their driving behavior as well
as the prevailing traffic situation. In addition, vehicles network with more and more external data
sources, which in turn feed further traffic information into the overall system.
Intelligent algorithms are used to evaluate these
huge data volumes and derive valuable information
that is opening the door on a completely new
dimension in mobility. Smart assistance systems
support motorists in critical situations and adjust
the car to the driver’s individual preferences and
requirements. Vehicle manufacturers analyze the
data to gain important insights for the optimization
of their vehicles’ safety systems, among other things.
For truly free-flowing travel, the aggregated realtime data may also be applied to optimize traffic
control. The traffic management system may for
instance be programmed to fine-tune the settings
of the guidance systems in accordance with the data
on current traffic concentration. This could put an end
to the time-wasting congestion that causes economic
damage running into the billions in Germany alone.
IBM
Ivo Körner
Managing Director of Sales, IBM Germany
Congestion and inner-city stop-go traffic impose costs
totaling several billions on the national economy every
year. Add to that the cost of accidents, many of which
are due to poor weather conditions or a lack of warnings on traffic disruptions. Intelligent traffic control and
information in real time can play a major role in defusing these situations and preventing fatal accidents, for
instance by warning motorists about ice, congestion or
other hazards. The foundations for this are being created right now: On the one hand, by 2020 there will be
very few non-networked vehicles still on the roads; on
the other hand, technologies such as Big Data, Cloudand mobile computing keep accelerating the development of relevant solutions also on the infrastructure
side. We are working globally with the leading automobile manufacturers, suppliers and telecommunications
service providers as well as public traffic control centers
and municipal administrations in developing and implementing the required systems and infrastructure. And
although we have barely begun, the results are highly
impressive, for instance in terms of improved traffic
management.
Moreover, aggregated data, intelligent analyses and
precise forecasts on traffic load, traffic flow and highway conditions will be valuable resources for active,
intelligent traffic management. The enablers include
networked sensor equipment in the vehicles, car-to-car
communication and analysis tools. We will be able to
implement intelligent traffic guidance systems whose
route recommendations are based on the position and
speed data that the networked vehicles are sending at
short intervals. In addition there will be new applications based on adaptive systems, which, for example,
know a motorist’s favorite daily routes and warn the
driver automatically about congestion and road works
on those routes. Our Watson technology is at the very
leading edge in this field, and the newly founded IBM
Watson Group will be investing massively in the further
development of ‘cognitive computing’.
Another topic for the future is autonomous driving: It
uses all the above-mentioned techniques, which, complemented by optical systems, enable driving without
drivers – a further important milestone for greater
safety and less disruption on our highways.
16
“Taking feeds from sensors
and GPS, vehicles generate
gigabytes of information
with every hour”
“By 2020 there will be
very few non-networked
vehicles still on the
roads”
“Augmented reality on board of the
vehicle will link the virtual world with
the real. As central display, the windshield will present all relevant vehicle
and situational information in the
driver’s field of vision”
“We will come ever
closer to the vision
of accident-free
motoring”
Toyota
Dirk Breuer
Advisor Advanced Technology,
Toyota Deutschland GmbH
The so-called ‘mirror link function’ in Toyota und Lexus
cars makes it possible to operate a smartphone via the
vehicle. With this, on-board accessories such as radio,
music systems or navigation equipment will soon become
things of the past. The vehicle itself stores the users’
favorite content and functional preferences. Already
today, W-LAN for convenient Internet access during journeys is an option available for all our models. This opens
the way for the use of additional applications in the vehicle, putting information on parking availability, fuel
prices and current traffic etc. at the driver’s fingertips.
This concept allows communication not only between
vehicles but also with the infrastructure, meaning that in
ten years’ time, the flow of traffic will have significantly
improved and hazard warnings may be generated only
for the immediate local area concerned. Cooperativeadaptive cruise control systems will enable coordinated
‘convoy’ driving. In conjunction with a lane guidance
function, the system will allow the vehicles in a certain
lane not only to synchronize their braking and accelerating actions, but also to automatically follow the path of
the lane. As time goes by, drivers will need to pay less
and less attention to the road, so that in 25 years, an
increasing number of trips will be made autonomously
by the vehicle itself. Finding a space in the underground
parking lot, looking for a e-charging station, scheduling
the annual technical inspection or filling up with fuel are
the kind of everyday necessities that, in 50 years, the
driver will not have to bother with anymore.
In parallel with this, the FV2 concept study that recently
made its debut at the Geneva Salon, is showing how our
driving experience might change. The vehicle establishes
a physical and emotional bond with its driver. This
enables vehicle control by gesture or bodily movement.
In addition the driver can adapt the settings for the external display to customize and change the bodywork color
at any time as desired.
17
Ford
Christian Ress
Technical Expert Connectivity, Ford European
Research Center, Aachen
In his outline of the “Blueprint for Mobility” project, Bill
Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company and
great-grandson of Henry Ford, described with some
precision how his company imagines the future of
automobility: “We see a future in which cars are mutually connected and communicate with each other and
with the infrastructure. Driving will become safer, congestion will be prevented and the environment will
be protected sustainably.”
This is reflected in Ford’s many years of intensive commitment to developing new driver assistance systems
based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. The electronic brake light for
instance is a warning system that advises motorists
traveling at some distance that there are heavily braking vehicles ahead. In the event of emergency braking, the electronic brake light uses W-LAN to transmit
a data signal, which will be registered on the displays
of the vehicles that are following. Tests of this Forddeveloped technology in the scope of the field trial
“Sichere Intelligente Mobilität – Testfeld Deutschland
(simTD)” demonstrated that motorists were able to initiate their braking earlier. Hence the electronic brake
light offers great potential for the avoidance of pileups or at least a reduction in their severity. These field
trials covered also successful tests of further functions,
for instance a road sign information system, a newly
developed hazard warning system that informs motorists promptly about potential risks such as objects or
persons on the roadway, an improved on-board traffic
data acquisition function, as well as a range of valueadded services.
As a rule, for the development of intelligent communications systems, Ford continues to bank on practiceoriented test programs in Europe, the US and all other
parts of the world. For example, Ford is involved in the
DRIVE C2X field test supported by the European Commission, and in a US-based field trial, covering more
than 2,800 vehicles, in collaboration with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
18
Bosch
Wolf-Henning Scheider
Managing Director and spokesman for the Automobile Engineering Division, Robert Bosch GmbH
Twenty years ago the Internet revolutionized the computer. In the years ahead, it will revolutionize the automobile. By making the automobile into an active part
of the Internet, Bosch is helping to make the mobility
of tomorrow safer, more convenient and more efficient. At the same time we are bringing the fascination of the digital world to the road.
Vehicle networking means more than merely surfing
the web while on the road. Bosch is pursuing three
guidelines: We are bringing the Internet into the vehicle in a form that can be experienced intuitively. We
are bringing vehicles into the Internet and are creating
assistance functions with added value. And furthermore we are networking cars with the traffic infrastructure. Today Bosch is already active in all the key
technology fields and has initial solutions at the production stage. In the future, completely new functions
will emerge. As an example, ‘augmented reality’ on
board of the vehicle will link the virtual world with the
real. The windshield will become the central display
and provide all relevant vehicle and situational information in the driver’s field of vision.
Bosch sees a global market for vehicle networking
because throughout the world, end customers and
automotive companies are keenly interested in vehicle
networking. Automated and networked vehicles are,
for instance, capable of improving traffic flow by up
to 80 percent, or enabling convenient and safe mobility for older people. In addition, study results suggest
that an increase in automated driving could cut the
number of road accidents by up to 90 percent. To link
the automobile with the Internet, Bosch is in a close
dialog with globally active car manufacturers but also
with innovative companies in other fields – in Europe,
North America and Asia.
TomTom
Carlo van de Weijer,
Senior Manager Intel Transport Systems, Live Feed
Engineering and Traffic, TomTom N.V.
Information technology has arrived in the mobility
field. Cars have become computers on wheels and
their capabilities exceed those of the motorists in
many respects. Assistance systems are already supporting drivers in various maneuvers and are making
driving safer and more efficient. But now that the
machines are exchanging more and more of their
information, they are also becoming cleverer than
highway authorities and traffic management centers.
This is transforming traffic management from the
ground up, and much more rapidly than many people
tend to expect.
The enormous growth in quality of navigation systems
and traffic information from service providers has
caused a drastic decline in the effectiveness of traditional traffic management systems. When motorists
prefer to follow the system that is integrated into their
vehicle rather than the public signage, then the traffic
authorities are more or less forced to cooperate with
motor manufacturers and service providers. Traffic
management is developing rapidly into a self-controlled system of well-informed individuals. Authorities
can withdraw to a large extent from traffic management and concentrate on incident management. Their
task is to set the parameters and make all the relevant
information accessible to the informationproviders.
In the future, automobiles will become yet more intelligent and solve most of the problems that, at present,
we are still trying to master through infrastructurebased countermeasures. That is why in the long term,
I expect that highway infrastructure will become simplified and “cleansed”. Public signage will be reduced
to a legal minimum.
On top of that, there will be less flexibility in traffic
regulations in order not to over-complicate traffic. In
general, intelligence will migrate from the infrastructure into the vehicle. Just as 200 year-old copper cables
and 60 year-old optical fiber technology have been the
basis for intelligent servers and clients and made the
Internet into a success, cars will themselves provide
the solution to the negative effects of mobility.
ERTICO
Hermann Meyer,
Chief Executive Officer, ERTICO-ITS Europe
There are several evolutionary trends that will substantially change the responsibilities and the experience of mobility in the context of people and goods
transport. These developments will make mobility
safer, more comfortable, cleaner and altogether
more efficient.
The essence of the first trend is that new technologies
for information, booking, payment and reservation
are making mobility ever easier for the user. This does
not merely apply to driving, but to travel or logistics
in general. The second trend applies to the growing
automation of mobility through the use of technologies that act on behalf of the driver, the traveler and
logistics user. Here the machine is making decisions
in response to the current situation – in the best interest of the user. The third trend is that mobility will be
increasingly delivered as a service by providers who
offer suitable services along the entire transport
chain and fulfill the users’ specific mobility demands
and wishes.
The core of these three trends is the collection,
exchange and processing of information, in short:
connected mobility. The final result will be intelligently organized mobility for people and goods,
where new business alliances between vehicle manufacturers, transport industry, IT companies, users,
mobile network operators, service providers and the
public sector will lead to a string of new innovations
for the benefit of mobility customers.
These central trends will be discussed at the next ITS
Europe Congress in Helsinki from June 16 to 19, 2014,
the meeting point of leading mobility and transport
experts from the EU and member states as well as
from industry and research.
19
ITS magazine 1/2014 | Trends & Events
Smart future
Intertraffic Amsterdam on March 25 to 28, 2014 With about
800 exhibitors on an exhibition area of roughly 60,000 square
meters, this industry summit proved once again its outstanding
rank among international traffic engineering events. But rather
than sheer quantities, it was the quality of the exhibits, especially those paving the way to the ‘smart traffic’ of the future,
that was most impressive.
20
Trends & Events | ITS magazine 1/2014
Until recently, the embedded IQ was
the measure of all things to do with
traffic engineering. That is to say,
making systems and products futureproof first and foremost meant equipping them with maximum ‘intelligence’.
But already a short exploratory tour
through the halls of the Intertraffic
2014 in Amsterdam showed that the
world of mobility has moved forward
another step.
“Intelligent mobility is good, smart
mobility is even better” would seem to
be an apt, if somewhat pointed summary of the impressions gathered at
the trade fair. These impressions were
actively encouraged by the organizers
of the trade fair, who for instance had
set up a special Smart Mobility Center
and organized a full program of sessions, presentations and events on the
subject, announced every day in detail
in the ‘Daily News’ for the trade fair.
There is no doubt that this evolutionary change is not merely a question of vocabulary, but involves the
very substance of this technological
field, as Markus Schlitt, Head of
Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems,
explains (see the interview on page
30). As he sees it, new technologies
and options have led to a definite paradigm shift in taking the optimum
approach to traffic problems and their
solution. “I like to compare the road
network to a virtual factory: In both
cases the objective is to make optimum use of available capacity. And if
you want to manage this network
flexibly and in real time for maximum
efficiency, you need the right roadside infrastructure and a software
architecture that will enable this kind
of management.“
One milestone on this way is the
new Sitraffic sX traffic controller,
which turned out to be a true visitor
magnet at the Intertraffic (see also
page 23). Besides connection options
for perfect networking, this controller
features innovative technology that
opens up as yet unparalleled possibilities for improving road safety: For the
first time, controllers can be remotely
updated with new functions also
when already in use in the field. As
these updates do not require interrupting the controller’s operation,
dangerous “out-of-service” situations
are now a thing of the past. Maintenance activities, too, can now be carried out remotely during ongoing
operation, substantially reducing
the need for field maintenance.
Not only at the company’s own
fair booth in Hall 11, but also in the
Elicium building of the RAI Exhibition
and Convention Center in Amsterdam,
Siemens set the topics for lively discussions. At a White Paper Conference, for example, Siemens presented
insights on how national and regional
capitals can capitalize on the benefits
offered by modern traffic management systems. On behalf of Siemens,
the renowned strategic transport
experts of Credo Business Consulting
LLP had carried out a study on the key
factors that will help cities with the
successful introduction of traffic
management systems to improve the
urban traffic situation. More than
2,000 registered attendees of the
Intertraffic were asked to participate
in the survey – and the answers
provided some astonishing results.
For instance, about a quarter of
the cities surveyed currently don‘t
havea clear vision or plan on how to
use intelligent systems for the efficient
management of traffic across their
municipal area. In many cases, this is
due to a lack of funds that has been
preventing cities from implementing
modern traffic management solutions,
which in turn limits their understanding of the true potential. As a result,
constructive suggestions in this area
often meet with little interest from
the responsible authorities.
In their study, Credo grouped the
regional and national capitals into four
different categories:
Cities with the strategic ambition and
the appropriate governance to capitalize
on modern traffic management (47 percent of cities surveyed, values rounded)
•Cities who do understand the benefits of modern traffic engineering,
but cannot provide the necessary
funds because of budgetary limitations (24 percent)
•‘Informed, but conservative’ cities,
which have some knowledge and
structures around traffic management, but have deliberately decided
not to invest in these opportunities
(21 percent)
•Cities who have no experience with
and thus only limited knowledge
about the efficiency benefits of
modern traffic management and
consequently a limited disposition
to invest in this field (9 percent)
“Be bold, be creative,
be knowledgeable –
and last but not least:
be accountable”
Dirk John
21
ITS magazine 1/2014 | Trends & Events
For Credo specialist Chris Molloy, the
results are both encouraging and disappointing: Encouraging, because
more than two thirds of cities have
recognized the enormous optimization potential offered by innovative
traffic technologies. Disappointing,
because close to one third of cities
are deliberately or unknowingly putting their sustainable future devel
opment at stake. “These days, the
fierce competition that used to
rage between global megacities
increasingly involves also regional
and national capitals. And you need
no crystal ball to see that cities with
inferior transport systems will not
be the ones with the best chances in
this competitive landscape.”
The explanation was provided by
Dirk John, CEO of Siemens’ Road and
City Mobility business unit, right at
the start of his presentation at the
White Paper Conference. As shown
by the Megacity Challenges Study
carried out by his company, mobility
is by far the most important infrastructure factor when it comes to
making a city more attractive for
Highlights presented
at the Intertraffic 2014
Sitraffic sX
“Smart traffic starts with a smart crossing” –
With extremely powerful hardware and
highly innovative software, the new traffic controller is setting completely new
standards in terms of user-friendliness,
flexibility, connectivity and efficiency
(see also page 23).
Sitraffic smartGuard
Offering easy, fast and flexible traffic
control via the Internet, smartGuard is
the optimum solution especially for those
municipalities who want to capitalize on
the benefits of modern traffic control
without having to invest huge sums in
hardware (see page 28).
Sitraffic Stream
Satellite-based prioritization system for
public transport and fire brigade vehicles:
Since it works without expensive roadside
infrastructure, the solution is especially
cost-efficient.
“These cities are
putting their
future at stake”
Chris Molloy
potential investors. 27 percent of
interviewees gave the highest priority ratings to the transport network,
with public security and energy
supply following far behind at nine
respectively six percent.
From the results of these studies,
Dirk John derives four brief but clear
recommendations for action for regional
and national capitals: “Be bold, be
creative, be knowledgeable – and last
but not least: be accountable.”
22
Sitraffic SST5 Stella
The innovative outstation for local incident
detection and warning and the perfect
solution for improving safety and accelerating traffic flow on critical road sections.
Sitraffic Sensus Unit
The compact hybrid onboard unit is compatible with all toll collection technologies:
accurate to the meter, easy to operate
and fit for universal use in satellite-based
as well as microwave-based systems.
Interurban Service Tool
The convenient smartphone app for repair
and maintenance jobs at outdoor systems
makes commissioning and troubleshooting easier, faster and more efficient.
The smart X Class
Sitraffic sX traffic controller Reduced to the max: The more complex the
traffic situation at urban intersections tends to become, the less complicated
the traffic controller needs to be – and the smarter. Sitraffic sX is the pioneer
of a new generation of controllers since its extremely powerful hardware and
highly innovative software are setting completely new standards in terms of
user-friendliness, flexibility, connectivity and efficiency.
The name says it all: The lowercase ‘s’ stands for ‘smart’, the
uppercase ‘X’ for ‘crossing’. The
interpretation is delivered by the
motto under which the new traffic
controller was presented at this
year’s industry summit in Amsterdam: “Smart traffic starts with a
smart crossing.” Essentially, Sitraffic
sX is both an evolutionary and a
revolutionary product. On the one
hand, it builds on tried-and-tested
technologies brought to perfection; on the other, it takes traffic
control to as yet never achieved
levels of convenience, flexibility
and efficiency. In fact, Sitraffic sX
is a completely new product,
whose development – from the
drawing board right through to
production maturity – followed
the principle of ‘focus on the
The new Sitraffic sX
traffic controller: Evolutionary and revolutionary at the same time
essential’, i.e. on exactly those features that will pave the way to the
often discussed ‘smart traffic’ of the
future for traffic managers in cities
around the world.
One of the key benefits is the high
level of investment security guaranteed, among other things, by the versatility of the new controller. Sitraffic
sX grows with the infrastructure of a
city because it is so flexible that it can
adapt to the widest range of configurations. It can be used as stand-alone
solution without connection to sensors and a higher-level traffic control
system, or work smoothly as an integral part of a large city’s extensive traffic management system. Of course, it
is in such a complete system comprising central traffic computer, tools and
the controller itself, that the full range
of functions of the new multi-talent
can be put to optimum use.
What is more, the product designers have achieved something that, in
these days of growing complexity,
is becoming increasingly rare:
the ‘no-frills’ focus on the
essential, which translates also into extraordinary ease of operation
and configuration. The
user-friendly software
and intuitive user interface make for very convenient operation of the controller, either via a personal
or tablet computer or via
a smartphone. Fully programmed and thoroughly
tested functions and solution modules are available in
a function library. Everything else can
be left to the embedded intelligence.
Another product banking on maximum simplicity is the new Sitraffic
smartCore tool, which makes configuring the Sitraffic sX a breeze. After
selection of the appropriate city or
country template, the software assistant guides the user through the
entire configuration process. With a
few mouse clicks the user can even
activate the optional innovative Sitraffic
sLX traffic-actuated control. The configuration can be automatically predefined on the basis of the defined
detectors and easily adapted using
the signal programs. The entire process takes only a few seconds!
Not only on the software level, but
also in terms of hardware design, the
product designers have kept their
focus on the essential. This is reflected
for instance by the extreme ease
of installation requiring minimum
cabling; by the modular and flexibly
expandable design of the frame; by
the serial communication between
the individual components and last
but not least by the tried-and-tested
SIL3 security architecture. From the
basic configuration with eight signal
groups, the controller can be expanded
up to turbo-level with more than 64
signal groups and up to 250 detectors.
A low-power lamp switch for 230V
LED signal heads (5-18 W) rounds off
the features on the hardware side.
And it goes without saying that
Sitraffic sX offers true ‘Plug & Play’
functionality, including automated
data synchronization between traffic
center and controller.
23
ITS magazine 1/2014 | Partners & Projects
Fit for the
Soccer World Cup
São Paulo Following the successful
implementation of the first PC SCOOT
traffic control system in this Brazilian
mega-city, the responsible traffic
authorities want to further optimize
urban traffic flow and plan to deploy
an additional system including ST950
traffic controllers at several intersections in the chic Alphaville suburb. In
addition, the city has ordered ST900
controllers, which will be installed
and commissioned in time for this
year’s FIFA World Cup to control the
traffic lights at intersections around
the new Corinthians Stadium in the
Itaquera district east of the 20-million metropolis.
View of Alphaville: The flow of traffic in this chic suburb is being optimized
Girls of all trades
Sicore with the
highest score
Augsburg With the goal of increasing the proportion of
women working in hitherto male-dominated trades and professions, a yearly Girls’ Day has been organized in Germany since
2001 under the sponsorship of the EU and two Federal Ministries. On this day, the participating companies invite girls in
fifth grade and older to spend a day at a workplace involving
technology, information technology, sciences or various craft
trades. On March 27, 2014, as in previous years, the SILUX
signal head production hall of the Siemens factory in Augsburg
opened its doors to interested young ladies. Three groups of
girls profited from the occasion to learn about seven different
job profiles and the related vocational training or academic
study programs, from mechatronics to electrical engineering.
Borlänge The Swedish Transport
Administration Trafikverket decided
to set up a comparative long-term
test involving several systems in order
to find out which ANPR camera was
the best suited for automatically recognizing hazardous materials labels
on trucks driving through Swedish
tunnels. To this purpose, the authorities installed several Sicore cameras,
besides other systems, in the Hallunda
Tunnel in Stockholm. For ten months,
the data gathered were transmitted
directly to the ANPR server in Munich
for analysis by the Trafikverket experts.
The result of the long-term evaluation
could not have been clearer: Sitraffic
Sicore reached the highest overall
score and outperformed the com
petitor products not only in terms of
detection rate, but of detection quality.
Group portrait with young ladies:
In Augsburg, 28 girls had fun exploring
the factory, especially when coding and
assembling traffic lights
24
Combined systems –
added value
Ras Al Akhdar A document of over
300 pages listed the criteria against
which the Department of Transport
of Abu Dhabi tested the fully integrated Urban Traffic and Tunnel Control System in this affluent district on
the West Corniche. At the end of the
test marathon, which took more
than a week, the traffic authorities
were impressed by the outstanding
performance of the innovative combination, the first of its kind across
the globe. Thanks to the integration
of two components that used to be
operating totally separately, the system creates substantial added value
for the operator.
In the side-view mirror
Speak to me!
In life, communication is everything.
And not only for humans.
ITS magazine
as mobile app
Siemens Publications The most
exiting perspectives on mobility
are now also available for mobile
devices: The free ‘Siemens Publications’ app makes it possible for iPad
and Android tablet users to subscribe
to the ‘mobile edition’ of the ITS
magazine. They will be notified as
soon as the latest issue has been
published. With the device connected to the Internet, the userfriendly app allows the complete
download of individual issues for
later offline reading. In addition, the
app offers a whole range of interactive features, from full-text search
functions through to options for
sharing particularly interesting articles via Social Media or e-mail with
colleagues and business partners.
It’s great that thanks to modern technology, it is now possible to connect with everything and everyone – always and everywhere, even
during a car journey. For the truly communicative among us, the ideal
solution is to have the vehicle equipped to read out incoming e-mails,
texts and other messages loud and clear. That way, we can hear about
all important events in our “Like-minded community”. All and any.
Rumpelstiltskin tweets: “I’m in the car listening to #Johnny Cash.” –
Blondie asks: “Who’s #Johnny Cash?” – Kevin (every bit as clueless)
posts an update anyway: “I’m jogging in the woods, blood pressure
and heart rate OK.” – “Who’s interested in that?” – “Fridge nearly
empty, time to go shopping.” – “Like!” – Meh.
What really matters is when not only we humans but increasingly
also our machines talk to each other: The post van at the intersection
politely informs its “followers” that it wishes to make a turn. The plugin car has a heart-to-heart with the charging station about the tariff.
And the subcompact chats with the pedestrian crossing. It goes: “Hallo
signal, subcompact coming.” – “Oops, just when I’m turning red.” –
“Oh well, I’ll slow down then.” – “Like.” – Much better!
So, everything OK at home? Since intelligent appliances, from the
rain detector to the cat flap are able to act independently and to communicate with us, there’s even more to contend with: Has Fifi got
enough food, is the gas tap switched off, and is the door to the terrace properly locked? Really like that! – Honestly?
The vacuum cleaner croaks that its bag’s at bursting point. All
right – no rush. The door to the terrace claims a time-out for rain and
locks itself. But now the cat’s location chip indicates that she’s simultaneously both indoors and out. The fridge reports: “Nearly empty.
Shopping list is in the Cloud.” Noooo – not interested in shopping
any more! “Voice message to favorite ristorante: reservation for
two.” – Mario: “Like!”
Message from fridge: “That’s so not cool. I’m outta here!” –
Should I like that?
25
ITS magazine 1/2014 | Knowledge & Research
Boomtime for
know-it-alls
Traffic data Mobile apps, top-class navigation systems or the good old radio: These
days, drivers can access more and more highquality information about the current traffic
situation. However, when it comes to control
and management decisions, the data sources
have to be at a completely different level of
quality. And the ‘virtually’ networked systems
of the future will place constantly rising
demands on this data.
If traffic information was a currency,
it would have hit one all-time high
after another in recent years. And
there is no end in sight to this bull
market. Because how well we succeed in keeping both individual and
collective travel times within acceptable limits despite the ever increasing
traffic density, depends first and foremost on the quality of the available
data. This applies just as much to the
individual motorist, who wants to get
from A to B as fast as possible, as it
does to traffic managers, who want
to keep vehicles moving in the most
effective way across their entire road
network by making the most efficient
control and management decisions
they can.
“Of course, not everybody who uses
traffic data has the same requirements
as regards the quality of information,”
says Astrid Kellermann, Product Manager for Data Management at Siemens
Mobility. “Clearly the stakes are the
highest in traffic control. Here it is
now all about the acquisition of data
for each and every vehicle with splitsecond accuracy, particularly in larger
cities. For establishing the general
traffic situation, for operating a rules26
based control system or for traffic
monitoring purposes, the requirements are not quite as tough. Still,
even in these applications, the data
must be significantly more accurate
and more reliable than that required
for routing services intended for
individual motorists.”
But the expectations of the latter
are rising, too. A trend is currently
emerging that would have seemed
rather unrealistic just a few years
ago. Clearly, more and more drivers
are now willing to pay for up-to-date
traffic information. These days, manufacturers of high-quality navigation
systems almost all collect a fee for
their traffic-dependent routing services – for example with personal
subscriptions or using built-in devices
that the user has to pay for when
buying the car.
Of course, there are also quite a
large number of free web-based route
planners providing an overview of the
current traffic situation. But these
come in different grades of quality,
which often has to do with the fact
that the operators use different sets
of criteria for evaluating the current
traffic situation. And the models that
“FCD is certainly a way
of closing existing
data gaps.”
Astrid Kellermann
are used to estimate the travel time
delay because of a hold-up are not
always 100 percent reliable, either.
The commercial routing services
derive this information directly from
various objects that flow with the
traffic against the background of
historical data.
The so-called Floating Car Data
(FCD) now plays an increasingly
important role even at the highest
levels of the discipline, serving as a
Knowledge & Research | ITS magazine 1/2014
All inclusive: Sicore camera system
Perfect overview: Today, more and more drivers are willing to pay for quality traffic information
supplementary source for the traffic
data needed as the basis for control
and management decisions. “There is
no doubt that the highest level of sustainability is achieved by using local
detectors, but of course you cannot
equip an entire city that way, but rather
you have to focus on clearly defined
priorities,” says Astrid Kellermann. “And
FCD is certainly a way of closing existing data gaps.”
Experienced transport professionals
understand where they can use the
information sent directly by the vehicles’ on-board equipment as an additional data component – and where
they can not. This is because FCD only
records a certain proportion of the traffic. At low road capacity utilizations,
just a few outliers can distort the representative sample. That is why FCD
offers the greatest benefits on main
arteries that have a high traffic frequency, where a considerable amount
of information is generated even when
only two percent of the vehicles are
actually delivering data. The quality of
traffic data is always related to its quantity. Additional criteria include the time
intervals for data updating, positioning
precision and the range of data content.
But to arrive at maximally meaningful data, a perfect fusion of the
FCD and the data supplied by local
detectors is needed. And that requires
a lot of knowledge and experience,
because there are a number of critical
parameters that must exactly match
up with one another, from the underlying geo-referencing to the defined
time intervals and the interpretation
of the contents. “Representing the
traffic situation using different methods can certainly result in different
assessments,” says Kellermann. “Of
course, a strategic detector only diagnoses a traffic jam when the traffic is
stationary at the point where the
detector has been installed. FCD, on
the other hand, provides data on
delays along an entire route.” This is
why it is especially important to merge
the data from different sources in the
data pool of the traffic control center
for uniform, consistent processing.
These days, there are also sustainable, infrastructure-based solutions
available to directly determine data
relating to a particular section. For
instance the fully integrated Sicore
camera system, which combines processor, illumination unit and image
analysis with automatic number plate
recognition and data encryption function all in one unit – or the combined
Bluetooth/WLAN scanner, which is
able to re-identify mobile terminals at
different points of the route as the
basis for travel time calculations. Both
systems offer the municipalities the
opportunity to benefit from the advantages of direct travel time measurement, without any concerns about
becoming dependent on one particular data provider as is the case with FCD.
So exactly what does the ideal data
mix look like, if it is required to meet
the constantly growing demand for
the quality of information in increasingly networked traffic and transportation systems? “It is certainly not
possible to arrive at a general formula,”
says traffic expert Astrid Kellermann,
summing up the situation. “For me,
however, is fairly certain that in the
future, FCD will be used more intensively than before, especially in traffic
management. For example, when it
comes to switching dynamic direction
signs, or operating roadside information systems that provide journey
time comparisons between private
transport and public transport. But in
traffic control, I don’t think that we
will be able to do without local data
now and in the foreseeable future.
And historical data, too, will always
be needed, both for online control
decisions, when there is insufficient
up-to-date information, and for offline
tasks such as the planning or evaluation of individual control measures.”
27
ITS magazine 1/2014 | Mobility & Living Space
Future 2Go
Traffic control via the Internet That goes to show how
quickly some futuristic visions can turn into virtual reality:
An innovative web-based traffic control center ‘to go’ allows
municipal traffic technicians to control and monitor their
traffic infrastructure while on the road – even if their town
does not operate a traffic computer of its own. Since the
completion of the successful pilot phase in seven European
countries, more than 1,500 traffic light systems have already
been connected to Sitraffic smartGuard.
28
Mobility & Living Space | ITS magazine 1/2014
Admittedly, not every product with
the word “smart” in its name will
automatically be a must-have, and
the true practical value of overqualified toasters or washing machines is
open to discussion. But in the complex areas of the professional world,
the available technologies can never
be too smart and too thoroughly networked to make the job of their users
easier and more efficient.
And that is exactly the objective of
Sitraffic smartGuard, an innovative
software that enables easy, efficient
and safe traffic control via the Internet.
From any HTML5.0-enabled browser
installed on a PC, tablet or smartphone, the user can now access controllers, detectors or car park systems
via a so-called ‘Private Cloud’. The specific benefits that the web-based
mobile traffic control center offers an
individual town or city depends primarily on the municipality’s size.
In relatively small towns Sitraffic
smartGuard can take over the leading
role – as a virtual ‘basic’ traffic control
center offering the key functions of a
traffic computer. In this case, Siemens
operates the required hardware at the
company’s premises in Munich, also
taking over permanent maintenance
and regular updates. Via the Private
Cloud, the customers can access the
system just as easily and conveniently
as if the computer was installed in
their own office. As the customers
pay only for the use of the system,
they need not invest a single euro in
hard- or software. Neither do they
have to hire IT staff, rent special
premises or install security systems.
In larger cities whose complex
street network requires more than
the basic traffic computer functions,
Sitraffic smartGuard will take on a different, but no less impressive role – as
a mobile add-on module for existing
traffic control centers such as Sitraffic
Scala. The innovative software complements the conventional operating
interfaces with convenient and flexible
access options via mobile devices. This
allows, for instance, the responsible
traffic technicians to spend their weekend at home while actually on standby
duty during a major event. The same
smartphone that receives the SMS
with the automatic error alerts gives
the technician access to the system for
immediate error analysis and direct
activation of the appropriate corrective
measures.
In addition, the new software program facilitates team play because it
offers the employees of the municipal
civil engineering office or the police
particularly easy access to the traffic
control systems. A truly valuable addition to their tools, as Olaf Hary from
Police Headquarters in Karlsruhe summarizes the results of extensive practical tests: “All our emergency service
dispatchers appreciate Sitraffic smartGuard as a definitely helpful tool. The
program operates reliably and requires
minimal operator training.“
“All our
emergency
service
dispatchers
appreciate
Sitraffic
smartGuard
as a definitely
helpful tool.”
Olaf Hary,
Police Headquarters Karlsruhe
Besides intuitive operation, the
clearly structured graphical user interface is one of the key features that
make working with the virtual tool a
breeze. The user needs no expert
knowledge because anybody who
can use a smartphone can work with
Sitraffic smartGuard. Four different
display modes allow the user to easily
locate the required information:
• A few mouse clicks on the OpenStreetMap provide the user with a
complete overview of the entire
system. ‘Bubbles’ integrated in the
map show key information on each
traffic-infrastructure object.
• In the list display, the user can sort
and group the different objects on
various criteria. A simple click on an
object opens a detail window.
• The dashboard with an integrated
watchlist allows the user to assess
the system’s current status at a
glance. Any error messages are displayed in red, warnings in yellow.
• And the signal plan archive serves to
visualize the operational data and
trace system history.
In the scope of several pilot projects, the visualization concept,
which has been specially optimized
for mobile applications, has proven
its capability of facilitating the traffic
technicians’ everyday tasks. “An excellent product,” summarizes Johannes
Wetzinger from the municipal author
ities of Innsbruck in Austria. “The
graphical user interface is well
designed and clearly structured. The
stylish symbols allow easy access to
the detail data of each intersection.”
The assessments by other pilot partners from a total of seven European
countries have been similarly positive.
Both versions of Sitraffic smartGuard – version 1.0 as a Sitraffic
Scala add-on and version 1.1 as autonomous web-based traffic control center – have proven their practical
worth in a wide range of contexts
and are now available on the market.
They have already been installed as
regular applications in several municipalities, for instance in Esslingen,
Bietigheim and Recklinghausen in
Germany, but also in a number of
cities in Greece, Norway and Finland,
soon to be joined by Warsaw und
Budapest. Already today the number
of traffic light systems controlled via
Sitraffic smartGuard totals more than
1,500 – and keeps rising rapidly.
At the Intertraffic 2014 in Amsterdam, Siemens presented the updated
version 2.0 with numerous additional features such as an integrated
strategy management module and
automatic maintenance messages.
What is more, there is now also the
ideal technical partner for the innovative mobile traffic center: the new
Sitraffic sX traffic controller (see page
23). The perfect interaction of the
two web-based components allows
automatic data synchronization and
makes it possible to integrate any
newly-installed traffic light immediately into the system for direct display
on the map.
29
ITS magazine 1/2014 | Profile
“The basic direction
Interview Mark Schlitt, Head of Siemens Intelligent Traffic
Systems (ITS) since October 1, 2013, talks about his plans to follow
a path of dynamic continuity, the unique synergy effects within a
highly diversified corporation, and what would be the greatest
nightmare scenario for him as a keen driver.
March 25, 2014, a few minutes before
4 p.m. at the Siemens stand for the
Intertraffic: We are surrounded by a
Babylonian confusion of languages,
people engaged in lively discussions,
constantly clicking cameras – the
usual hustle and bustle at the trade
fair. It’s not easy to hold on to the
empty seat reserved for our interview
partner because seating is in high
demand: Is this seat taken? Erwarten
Sie noch jemanden? Est-ce que cette
place est libre? C’è ancora posto qui?
Está libre? Markus Schlitt arrives on
the dot, at a determined pace but
with an open smile. It’s his twelfth
appointment today.
Mr. Schlitt, how about a cup of
coffee and a short rest?
Thank you, I’d appreciate a cup. But as
for taking a rest, I can do that while
talking. What would you like to know?
Until the fall of last year you were
responsible for the strategy of the
entire Mobility and Logistics Division of Siemens. Since October 1,
2013 you have been in command of
the Intelligent Traffic Systems business. How has that changed life for
you personally?
One major difference is that I now
make many more decisions based on
gut feeling. The reason for this can
be found in the nature of the task in
hand. Unlike strategy development,
which is strongly influenced by analysis and long-term cycles of observation, as an operational manager you
have to concentrate far more on the
short- and medium-term issues generated by day-to-day business. And
usually there is not much time for
detailed analyses.
30
As you have already had a significant influence on the strategic
course of the business, it seems
likely that your emphasis will, on
the whole, be on continuity?
Precisely. The basic direction of
Siemens’ Intelligent Traffic Systems
business will remain the same, and
as things stand I see absolutely no
reason for any substantial change
of direction. Of course, the details
still need to be constantly readjusted,
for example when it comes to growth
targets, regional priorities or the
composition of our portfolio.
What are the three most important
objectives you want to achieve?
As both market and technology leader,
naturally we have a clear ambition to
set the future trends in mobility – and
that not only with regard to optimizing
traffic flow, but also to improving
safety and reducing the environmental
impact of traffic. This magic triangle
will continue to be the basis of our
mission to lead road traffic engineering into a new era. I think that our
innovations shown at the Intertraffic
2014 demonstrated this very clearly
(see page 20; editor’s note).
Your business is the only one in the
world that has expertise in all areas
of mobility, as well as in important
related fields such as information
technology. How do you use in practice the interdisciplinary know-how
transfer that this enables?
For example, these synergies become
particularly obvious in the increasing
degree of automation in road traffic.
That is why we work closely with our
colleagues in rail automation when
we are developing IT platforms, as for
decades they have been setting the
standard in the areas of train control
and train protection right across the
world. And also when designing intermodal solutions we benefit enormously from having an in-house
source of in-depth information about
user preferences in other modes of
transport. In general, I believe that
our holistic understanding of mobility
is our greatest strength. We certainly
have strong competitors at the product level, but as soon as we talk about
complete systems and customized
solutions, we offer a service that is
unique. Speaking in a more promotional way, we could perhaps say:
Where others tend to stop, we keep
on going.
As Head of Siemens ITS, you are
leading a global team of nearly
2,600 employees. This would certainly not be possible if you were
to spend 100 percent of your time at
your desk in Munich. Which regions
have you already visited in the first
few months?
First of all, you have to understand
that our business is very local. What
makes us so strong is our high level
of local expertise. Against this background I would also like to describe
the role of Head of Siemens ITS as
being a very important one, but not
decisive on its own. Furthermore, in
the person of our CFO Mesut Eken,
I have a partner at my side with whom
I can confer very intensively on all
major issues. Among other things,
we also agree our business trips with
each other. My first destination was
China, quite simply because that is
where the effects of urbanization are
the most visible. And I am firmly con-
Profile | ITS magazine 1/2014
has been set”
Personal Background
vinced that the best solutions can
always be found in those places
where the problems are most evident. After that, various German,
British and American cities were on
my itinerary. And soon I will probably
be visiting some customers in the
Middle East, a
region that over the
next few years will surely continue
to count as one of our strongest
growth markets.
When you are traveling, what
means of transport do you personally prefer?
Generally I’m a fan of cars, which still,
in my view, offer the greatest flexibility. But privately, here in Munich,
I often use public transport as well. Of
course on long-distance business trips,
I use the entire range – plane, train,
taxi. Rental bikes are the only means
of transport where I do not have so
much experience.
The more intelligent and networked
mobility becomes, the more we
approach the extreme solution –
autonomous driving. Are there tasks
that car driver Markus Schlitt has no
wish to relinquish to technology?
I feel like so many other keen drivers.
Our greatest nightmare scenario is
completely losing control of the act
of driving. I do not think this will happen in the foreseeable future. What
will prevail, at an ever increasing
pace, are semi-autonomous systems,
such as parking aids or systems to
maintain a safe distance in congested
traffic. And cars that are able to look
for parking spaces on their own are
already technically feasible – the
questions that remain unanswered
are in general of a legal nature,
mainly involving liability issues.
• 1993: Graduation from the
technical secondary school
Weissenburg in Franken,
Bavaria
• Military service with the paratroopers at Altenstadt Air Base
and School for Airborne Troops
• 1999: Graduation in Industrial
Engineering and Management
at the University of Applied
Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt
• 1999-2002: Industrial engineer
for materials handling and
logistics at KSB AG
•2004: Graduation as Master of
Business Administration (MBA)
at the Rotterdam School of
Management (RSM)/Erasmus
University Rotterdam (The
Netherlands)
•2004-2011: Various positions
with Siemens Management
Consulting (SMC), most
recently as Vice President/
Managing Partner
•2011-2013: Senior Vice President
Strategy and Business Development, Mobility and Logistics
Division, Infrastructure & Cities
Sector, Siemens AG
•Since 2013: Head of Siemens
Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS)
Mr. Schlitt, thank you very much for
talking to us.
31
IMPRINT
ITS magazine · The Magazine for Siemens
Intelligent Traffic Systems
Publisher: Siemens AG · Infrastructure & Cities
Sector · Mobility and Logistics Division
Road and City Mobility
Hofmannstrasse 51 · D-81359 Munich
Editors: Dr. Michael Ostertag (responsible for
contents), Karin Kaindl: Siemens IC MOL RCM MK
Coordination: Roland Michali: Siemens
IC MOL CC, Erlangen
Copywriting: Peter Rosenberger, Philip Wessa:
www.bfw-tailormade.de · Eberhard Buhl
(“In the side-view mirror”)
Photographs:
Corbis Titel, p. 2, 6/7, 24 o., 26/27 . Gisela Schenker
p. 3 . Daimler AG p. 8/9, 14 . dpa picture-alliance
p. 8, 11, 12/13, 13 r. . Verband der Automobilindustrie
e.V. p. 15 . SAP p. 15 . Microsoft Deutschland p. 16 .
IBM Deutschland p. 16 . Toyota Deutschland GmbH
p. 17 . Europäisches Ford Forschungszentrum Aachen
p. 18 . Robert Bosch GmbH p. 18 . TomTom N.V.
p. 19 . ERTICO-ITS Europe p. 19 . Photocase.com p. 25
English translation: Dr. Barbara Gutermann
Sprachendienste GmbH, Biberach
Concept & Layout: Agentur Feedback,
Munich · www.agentur-feedback.de
Printing: Mediahaus Biering, Munich
Copyright: © Siemens AG 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or used without express prior
permission. Subject to technical modifications.
Printed in Germany.
The next issue of the ITS magazine will be
published in June 2014
www.siemens.com/traffic
ISSN 2190-0302
Order No A19100-V355-B115-X-7600
Dispo No. 22300 · K No 689
313702 IF 04145.5
32
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High drive for data

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