Enabling Emergency Service V2V Communication for Safety Applications in Australia

Category

Connected and Automated Vehicle Award

Submitting Organisation

Q-Free Australia

Collaborating Partners

Lexus Australia

Ambulance Victoria

Australia Integrated Multimodal Ecosystem (AIMES)

Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) enables emergency service vehicles to share awareness messages with surrounding vehicles, request priority at signalised intersections, and consume event notification and information messages. Development of this technology by Q-Free and real-world testing with collaborators including Lexus, Ambulance Victoria, and AIMES increases the broader Intelligent Transport Systems conversation in Australia and builds C-ITS expertise across industries.

The Emergency Service Vehicle Notification C-ITS use case aims to minimise emergency vehicle response time and improve road safety by:

• improving situational awareness for road users of any emergency vehicle in the vicinity;

• providing directional-based alerts to contextualise the situational awareness; and

• warning of stationary or slow-moving emergency service vehicles and providing recommended actions such as a reduced target speed, in accordance with local regulations.

Based on C-ITS standards and Emergency Service Vehicle Notification specifications, Q-Free Australia developed the software and provided vehicle-mounted hardware devices to perform real-world testing, with integration to ambulances including light bars and sirens, and to standard road vehicles including human-machine interface (HMI) with display and audio. The software was developed using sophisticated Geographic Information System (GIS) simulations prior to real-world testing using Q-Free provided C-ITS hardware.

Testing with vehicles in a controlled environment provided the necessary feedback to improve the system prior to real-world testing in the AIMES precinct. The successful demonstration of the use case showed a significant increase in situational awareness amongst the vehicle drivers. The visual and audio warnings provided timely contextual information to the driver. The driver had accurate information about the approaching ambulance based on the presented alert and responded appropriately. Overall, this use case demonstrated effective communication between vehicles, which resulted in a safer and more efficient working environment for emergency services.