What location means for mobility How location can unlock local and national potential.
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/happens
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Contents Introduction
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Why sensors alone cannot prevent road accidents
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Are we entering a radical new era of transportation?
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Self-driving cars has never been about... cars
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Will autonomous vehicles be lost in translation?
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Mobility drives more than traffic
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How digital infrastructure will enable connected environments
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Our projects
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Introduction How will the world move people and goods in the future? We believe intelligent mobility and geospatial information will be an essential component to support the delivery of new services and solutions. Ordnance Survey (OS) is working on several projects to enable an environment for future connected mobility solutions. We’re doing this with our partners to develop processes, platforms and standards to deliver the societal and economic benefits of intelligent mobility. And we’re helping to shape the national data infrastructure to support the UK’s ambition to be a world-class test center for accelerating CAV testing programmes, using our geospatial expertise. Everything Happens Somewhere uncovers the crucial role of location data in powering new technologies. Experts from across industry discuss these developments and how location is driving better outcomes in data capture, exchange and application. Want to get involved in the conversation? Sign up at www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/happens
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Why sensors alone cannot prevent road accidents By Daniel Ruiz | CEO, Zenzic
Self-driving vehicles are predicted to add £52bn to the economy by 20351. But to realise this opportunity, we need to create public acceptance by building confidence in safety. A new report released by Zenzic and Ordnance Survey outlines what is required by connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) to operate both safely and reliably2. Key to this is real-time mapping data, accurate to within five centimetres to augment location data collected by on-board sensors. Currently, around 90% of road accidents are due to human error3. If we can remove these from the equation with autonomous, then the benefit to society is clear. One of the fundamental requirements for any self-driving vehicle is situational awareness, knowing where it is and what’s going on around it. This awareness is dependent on accurate geospatial data about the environment – what’s fixed and what is moving.
When taking split-second evasive action (for example swerving to avoid hitting a pedestrian who has stepped into the street) a human driver will have to take into account the fixed and moving elements of the environment simultaneously. It’s enormously complicated and mistakes are sometimes made. If a self-driving vehicle already has accurate data on the fixed elements surrounding it, before encountering them, then it only needs to rely on its sensors to appraise the locations of moving ones or changes to the fixed ones.
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-moves-forward-on-advanced-trials-for-self-driving-vehicles 2. https://zenzic.io/insights/geodata-report 3. http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/12/human-error-cause-vehicle-crashes 4. https://zenzic.io/insights/geodata-report/
These sensors won’t necessarily always perform, however. While multiple sensors reduce the chance of failure, access to accurate location data – delivered to the vehicle before it is needed – will bolster the reactive elements of the vehicle’s cameras and sensors. This makes the whole system more resilient. Our report with OS is a concrete first step in establishing the reliability of the data that will underpin autonomous vehicles4. While there is much more work to do, the report presents a roadmap that outlines a clear blueprint for future progress.
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Much of the data needed for five-centimetre resolution maps already exists. The challenge now is to set up a system that can amalgamate and deliver it to vehicles on the road. If the location data that underpins self-driving vehicle safety is hosted neutrally by a respected custodian like OS, then it will be more likely to be used widely and relied upon. This has the potential to create a virtuous cycle of data adoption that will facilitate safe, widespread deployment of CAV-enabled systems and services. One challenge presented by a shared framework for CAV data standards is the risk of cyber-attack. We are not complacent about those challenges. In the UK we are lucky to have world-class data and cybersecurity experts working
on this issue – including at the National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) which was founded by GCHQ. The UK is in a good position to play a leading role in defining common data standards for CAVs worldwide. Zenzic was founded in part to make sure there is a wholly interoperable environment in the UK to both test and develop the reliable infrastructure that is a prerequisite for the rollout of CAVs. We are pleased there is now a tight-knit ecosystem of companies and government agencies working together, building the data infrastructure that will underpin the safety of CAVs. At the heart of this ecosystem is Zenzic’s network of facilities called Testbed UK. Like OS, Testbed UK is built on the UK’s world-class organisations – in this case, specialists in testing and development of vehicles, systems and services.
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This report is a concrete first step on the road towards a future where the UK economy can benefit from its considerable expertise in connected and autonomous technology.
Daniel Ruiz is CEO of Zenzic, which was created by government and industry to accelerate the self-driving revolution in the UK. Daniel has served in senior positions in national and local government, as well as executive roles in the private sector: running transport operations as well as technology and innovation organisations.
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Are we entering a radical new era of transportation? By Paul Campion | CEO, Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)
Despite dramatic technological advancements and innovation in the last hundred years, twenty-first century transport would be easily recognisable to someone from a hundred years ago. Today’s cars, buses, bikes, and even transport infrastructure would be familiar to the average urban Edwardian. But this is about to change, as we enter a new stage of radical transformation in transport, driven by advances in foundational technologies. Compare this revolution in transport to the dawn of electricity: the provision of electricity in cities began in the late 19th century, but noticeable change to the lives of citizens and economic productivity was not observed until the early 20th century. This period of several decades was required for the benefits of this scientific revolution to take effect, and will be necessary for mobility technologies such as electric cars and driverless vehicles. When you look at the big picture, only 8% of the 37 million cars in Great Britain sold each year are new, and of these
less than 3% are electric – it will take a long time before the average British car embodies these new and exciting advancements5. Thus, the future of mobility relies substantially on improving transport services and optimising infrastructure, not in new vehicles and technologies alone. The business model of Uber demonstrates how it’s innovation of existing technologies have the potential to induce the biggest change in mobility. The company’s success is down to a revolution in accessibility to existing assets, based on a new type of service, rather than the invention of new technology. However, many such developments in the use of transport crucially rely on geospatial data. Geospatial data provides us with the ability to be certain, for the first time in history, exactly when and where transport can be accessed. Without universal access to geospatial data, we have lived in a world of timetables and bus stops, where a time and place must be specified in order to ensure people and their transport means intersect.
The responsibility of getting from A to B rests entirely on the traveller’s shoulders, organising the most efficient or cheapest route, and ensuring they make it on time to board each new mode of transport. The smartphones in our pockets know exactly where we need to be tomorrow, based on our calendar, and yet we need to do substantial research and have a lot of background knowledge to establish exactly how to get to this location. With effective use of location data, we can develop services that enable seamless multi-modal transport, taking us from one place to another without having to consider how – it would be like having our own personal, virtual butler to make all our arrangements for us. No single technology is able to overcome the issues of geographical isolation leading to social exclusion, with limited transport options barring people from achieving economic benefits.
5. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/716075/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2017-revised.pdf
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To make transport truly accessible for everyone, regardless of their tech-literacy, age, or economic status, we need to use the assets we have in a better way that works for everyone. A project lead by UWE and First Group in Bristol has begun to explore the use of smart mobility in extending existing transport networks to reach more people. Transport is integral to participation in all aspects of society, but many people live in areas poorly served by public transport links. My First Mile is an amalgamation of on-demand services, an electric taxi-bus that connects local people with other modes of public transport6. It intelligently calculates the optimal route between passenger drop-offs to ensure the maximum number of people benefit from its operation, demonstrating
6. https://myfirstmile.co.uk/
how smart mobility can overcome the social exclusion facilitated by isolation from public transport networks, and adapt to user needs. The future of transport also depends on a change in attitude towards multiple occupancy travel. As the population grows, it is crucial that for positive steps to be made in the energy efficiency of travel, we must become more comfortable sharing our spaces with other people. ‘Public transport’ raises certain perceptions for many, but with transport being the single biggest contributor to the UK’s carbon emissions, there is a pressure to decrease the number of vehicles on the road. Increasing accessibility to optimised travel requires transporting more and more people through historic British infrastructure, which cannot always be stretched to accommodate more vehicles.
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We must adjust how transport operates in this existing space, ensure that everyone regardless of ability can access it, and utilising geospatial data is the key.
Paul leads the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). TRL is a global centre for innovation in transport and mobility. It provides world-leading research, technology and software solutions for surface transport modes and related markets engaged in intelligent, new mobility innovations.
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Self-driving cars has never been about... cars By Simon Navin | Head of Innovation Programmes, Ordnance Survey
Some argue technology is steering the great connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) juggernaut (which like it or not is accelerating our way, fast). There’s evidence this is true, to a degree: millions of pounds are being invested on research in CAVs, defining and creating technologies, and frameworks & standards, to ensure safe operation, and that exactly the right data flows between vehicles and the environment around them. But with more investment and research on driverless cars comes more insight into a bigger picture. The lens is focusing now not just on the vehicles themselves but other areas such as societal values and the wider topic of ‘intelligent mobility’. Our experience of ‘place’ is largely defined by its ‘mobility’. New York has the iconic yellow cabs, for example. In Amsterdam, it’s bicycles. Whereas Mumbai is perceived to be permanently choked with traffic.
According to The Department for Transport’s Vehicle Licensing Statistics, Great Britain currently has nearly 38 million vehicles7. These don’t just ‘do their own thing’, and, as they become more connected and autonomous, nor will they be able to in the future. Other factors will have to be considered, such as network safety, congestion, and pollution, in a similar way to today. So, standards and mechanisms are being developed around the individual vehicles, and the connections they’ll have, too. If vehicles can successfully and safely exchange data in real time, a car hitting a pothole could communicate to the car behind it to take a different course of action. And if we take the same principle regarding vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, traffic lights could be optimised to enable the best flow of traffic or to prioritise emergency vehicles, after an interaction with a passing car or bus. And at the heart of successful data communication & exchange is location. Using location data, speeds could be
7. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/all-vehicles-veh01#licensed-vehicles 8. https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/news/2018/ecave-project-uk-driverless-vehicle-infrastructure.html
set along certain stretches of road to minimise traffic back-up and save fuel and emissions, following interaction with vehicles and infrastructure. In areas of heavy congestion, traffic could easily be re-routed using real-time data, or infrastructure perform differently based on dynamic location-based information. At E-CAVE, we’re developing neutral ways of exchanging information between vehicles and infrastructure8. We’re exploring how vehicles, mobility and ‘place’ are joined up, and how they need to interact in a connected and enabled environment. We want to support the drive to make places more pleasant, habitable and investible. This naturally includes health. Transport systems have a big impact on the social, ecological and economic health of a locality. We need to look beyond vehicle technology and enable cities and regions to balance their needs.
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Cycling and walking are really healthy and effective ways of getting around in urban areas and need to part of the whole mobility picture. We’re saying: while the high-tech is important, let’s not lose sight of the more traditional methods that bring a different value. Supporting the public good is strong on E-CAVE’s agenda. A single proprietary platform – such as Google or Uber – can’t own the entire intelligent mobility space. There needs to be interoperability between systems. A Ford must be able to talk to a Volkswagen and a Vauxhall to a Toyota without any friction. It’s in the public interest to have a mutual way of exchanging information for safe operation. Of course, the way people use transport in the future will evolve from what it is today. Consumer behaviour is changing, and people are far less likely to own their own vehicles for certain journeys. When we buy CDs, we don’t necessarily want to own shelves full of plastic, but we do want to listen to music. Brands such as Spotify have cottoned on to offering music as a service, and companies such as RideShare
and RideHail are offering mobility as a service with their demand-and-response model of travel. People will just think: I’d like to go somewhere now. A mobility as a service offering in the mix changes the whole picture. While the focus on connected and autonomous vehicles is appropriate, we must continue to aim for intelligent mobility, focusing on moving people and goods in ways that are beneficial to the health of people, communities and places. Achieving this will involve using multiple modes of transport and delivery, including everything from ships to lorries, cars, delivery pods, drones, bicycles and walking, as seamlessly and effortlessly as possible. And it will require large amounts of information to be made available to talk to each other across devices and systems. With the creation of such vast amounts of data on where people are going and when new possibilities will be opened up around targeted marketing and
9. https://www.petrashub.org/portfolio-item/lightweight-security-and-privacy-for-geographic-personal-data-and-location-based-services/
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advertising. Ordnance Survey is helping to fund GeoSec, a collaborative study with the University of Surrey, which is investigating how to ensure that details of our movement and location remain private9. This will help address very real public concerns around data privacy and security in this current technological revolution. So, it’s never been about the vehicles themselves. We’re looking at national interest, industrial strategy, scalability, consistency, neutrality, and safety – and developing business models around all these areas.
Simon delivers smart, IoT and BIM geospatial projects, ensuring data integrity, attribution, accuracy and interoperability.
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Will autonomous vehicles be lost in translation? By Miranda Sharp | Innovation Director, Ordnance Survey
Last year, the Government released a new cybersecurity standard to ensure self-driving vehicles are designed with an equal level of resilience against cyber-attack10. Yet many might be surprised to know there are no equivalent standards governing the self-driving navigational technologies upon which road safety will depend. Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are being built with a plethora of proprietary mapping engines, sensors and communication systems of varying degrees of quality which are incompatible and cannot ‘talk’ to each other. These vehicles are being designed for competitive differentiation, rather than co-operation. Yet autonomous vehicles cannot work safely as atomised, autonomous individuals but must communicate and operate as an electronically intertwined ‘fleet’ that can be collectively re-routed around traffic or hazards.
This means they must have a single standard for capturing their exact location in relation to their surroundings and communicating their location to each other. They also need a universal, context-sensitive navigational backup when their sensors fail; if their cameras misread a speed sign, we need to know that autonomous cars have maps that will tell them not just their current location but also the speed limit in relation to their current location. Crucially, they must be able to communicate exactly where they are with pinpoint-accuracy so they can negotiate over-takes and lane changes.
10. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-cyber-security-standard-for-self-driving-vehicles
Cars also need a universal standard for capturing and communicating their movements in relation to their environs so they can crowd-source live data from the roads and adapt to sudden changes such as temporary road closures or sink-holes. Leaving this at the mercy of the market could lead to a communication breakdown on the roads. We could see cars with lower-quality sensors or maps that give a slightly inaccurate position causing a crash when changing lanes ahead of a car with different sensors. Information about an accident ahead might be communicated to all Google cars but not all Apple cars.
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If driverless cars all use rival proprietary communication systems, there will also be no way for local authorities to broadcast Traffic Restriction orders, temporary road closures or hazard warnings to all nearby vehicles. Without a universal standard for capturing and sharing location data, it will also be difficult to implement intelligent mobility solutions to reduce congestion or pollution, which will require all traffic to be monitored and managed as a single ‘swarm.’ Which means mapping engines must be continuously updated by drawing on extensive data from surveyors, local authorities and other road-users on changes in the road such as potholes or road works. Rival mapping systems with different databases and degrees of coverage might create a ‘postcode lottery’ in road safety. A vehicle travelling through an area where its mapping system does not have an up-to-date database might not realise that it is approaching a road with a newly-mapped sinkhole.
The solution is a single, universal system for autonomous vehicle communication and a single mapping system underpinning all driverless navigation. This must be a vendor-neutral mapping engine with equal coverage across all parts of the country updated with a rich national database of road data from all models of vehicle and all local authorities. It must have everything from the latest Met Office meteorological data to local authority data overlaid onto the roadmap so the car can situate its sensor readings in the current context; if a car camera sees a road ahead, it must be able to check if there have recently been accidents, upgrades or floods on that road. A universal intelligent mapping engine would also act as a universal navigational ‘backstop’ in case sensors and Artificial Intelligence systems fail.
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universal standards and technologies governing driverless navigation11. An equal standard of reliable, accurate geospatial data and data-sharing for all models of an autonomous vehicle is the only way to ensure an equal standard of safety across our roads.
As Innovation Director at Ordnance Survey Miranda is passionate about the data which fuels the digital economy, smart infrastructure and business models. Her role connects people, research and ideas; real world problems to solutions and customers to capability.
Ordnance Survey has been working to help define how CAVs can capture and share positioning and safety information in real-time and create
11. https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/smart/mobility-cav.html
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Mobility drives more than traffic By Mark Stileman | Innovation and Outreach Manager, Ordnance Survey
Mobility means so much more than getting from A to B. It can impact the environment, the economy, people’s health and numerous other facets of day to day life. Moreover, a person’s experience of a place tends to be defined by how they move through it, and as a consequence, places can be defined by their transport infrastructure. A person’s views on Kolkata in India, and Dusseldorf in Germany, may differ greatly for these very reasons – research has found Dusseldorf to be the world’s most hospitable city to motorists, and Kolkata the worst12. The UK Industrial Strategy identified mobility as one of four ‘Grand Challenges’13. However, if we overcome this challenge the UK could put itself at the forefront of future industries. The UK, therefore, must look at ways of ensuring that the right infrastructure is in place to guarantee that mobility can thrive and become a social and economic enabler for the country.
This comes at a time when the UK is on the cusp of one of the biggest revolutions in mobility for a generation. There are four main interconnected drivers behind this changing landscape – the rise of autonomous vehicles, connectivity technology which enables objects to ‘talk’ to each other, increased electrification of vehicles, and the rise of shared mobility. All this against a backdrop of the environmental agenda and focus on clean air, mean the transformation has support at a policy level.
Take parking infrastructure as an example. Research has found thousands of vehicles are sitting idle 95% of the time, whereas some congestion is caused simply by drivers roaming the streets looking for a parking space – a 2017 study concluded that UK drivers spend an average of 44 hours a year searching for parking14. However, these often fruitless searches for a parking space do more than cause congestion; they increase pollution and raise drivers’ tempers, and can also reduce productivity if the travel is work related.
The challenge is the UK like many places, has a legacy infrastructure in place and it’s not designed to cope with the mobility revolution we are witnessing. Transport infrastructure, like that of energy and telecommunications, has been updated incrementally over decades of works and is divided among many different owners, resulting in a disparate patchwork of overlapping systems, rather than a unified, integrated mobility ecosystem.
This disparate system leads to companies focusing on optimising their own section of infrastructure rather than looking at the efficiency of the wider UK landscape. There is also little coherence and collaboration in the planning of transport and other infrastructure such as housing and healthcare even though they are inextricably linked.
12. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2017/09/27/the-worlds-best-and-worst-cities-for-drivers/#4fd1c88f42e9 13. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664563/industrial-strategy-white-paper-web-ready-version.pdf 14. https://geovation.uk/people-places-mobility-cav-opportunity/
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Mobility drives more than traffic. It is a public good that enables people and businesses to flourish and is integral to the wellbeing and vitality of places. As Public Health England states, “‘Healthy’ high streets can support the reduction of health inequalities and promote other desirable outcomes including safety, prosperity and social interaction15. In short, high streets can help make healthy choices easier choices.” Enabling mobility requires a mixture of infrastructure, asset (vehicle) and service provision, measured not just in distance travelled and time consumed, but much more widely across measures of economic, social and environmental health, reflected in the productivity and liveability of places. There is likely to be limited changes in physical and built infrastructure in coming years, constrained by the density of the UK’s existing infrastructure. Better mobility will be enabled through (a) the smarter management and monitoring of our existing infrastructure
and (b) the integration of the assets from different networks to create new services for customers. Both improvements depend on data, and specifically its interoperability across both new and legacy systems to enable service integration and business model innovation. To achieve this vision, we need to integrate transport maps with social, environmental and economic data to create joined-up multi-modal mobility systems geared towards delivering wider benefits to society in every location. By utilising data, we can also create dynamic infrastructure for the UK; something which responds to the demands on it and its impact on the environment around it. For example, if data shows us 90 per cent of traffic travels eastbound down a road between 8am and 9am, and then 90 per cent travels westbound between 5pm and 6pm, we can dynamically change the number of lanes operable on each side of the carriageway to react to demand; quickly reducing congestion.
15. h ttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/ 699295/26.01.18_Healthy_High_Streets_Full_Report_Final_version_3.pdf
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The best approach is therefore to use location as a common means of integrating and correlating data. By creating a ‘map of maps’ which integrates interoperable data from a vast array of sources we can understand how to improve mobility and the public good that accompanies it. Joined-up data is the key to creating a unified overview of how all infrastructure, local and national, intersects with transport to transform society and the economy across all regions.
Mark is responsible for emerging market stakeholder engagement at Ordnance Survey, advocating the value of geospatial data and technologies for the UK’s future relating to infrastructure, mobility and connectivity themes.
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How digital infrastructure will enable connected environments By Dr George Economides | Team Leader for CAVs at Oxfordshire County Council
Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are being tested on roads in complex urban, rural and highways environments – each with their unique challenges. At Oxfordshire County Council, we are pioneering the introduction of autonomous vehicles in our county for a variety of use cases – working with multiple stakeholders including transport providers, citizen engagement groups, traffic management officials and CAV innovators like Oxbotica on the DRIVEN project16. Much progress in this arena has focused on a bottom-up approach – developing the vehicles themselves. We are looking at this problem from the top down at Oxfordshire County Council, at how CAVs can be safely and equitably integrated in a balanced transport network. We are developing smart urban, peri-urban and rural environments, of which connected vehicles are just one part, along with healthy modes of transport.
16. https://drivenby.ai
Connected infrastructure, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital infrastructure, are central to building these smart environments and can provide unprecedented insight to how these areas are performing and can be supported. In doing this, we also want to minimise roadside clutter and long term maintenance costs, creating more liveable communities and making the best use of public funds. This practically means moving as much infrastructure in the cloud as possible. This will also allow better adaptability as the requirements change over time. There are several horror stories about local authorities having ‘like-for-like’ commercial arrangements that were agreed decades ago and cannot keep up with emerging needs. With a cloud-based data infrastructure, we can take location data collection and distribution to a higher level of abstraction than can be collected by an individual vehicle.
This will allow for more consistent access to location data over much larger areas and better possibilities for analysis. However, an online system relies on consistent, secure and efficient connectivity with road users, which is a challenge when low latency and/or high bandwidth is required. Especially when bridging urban, peri-urban and rural settings. Therefore, a combined approach that combines physical and digital infrastructure is required, depending on the information urgency. For example, a smart traffic light that communicates directly with the vehicle will have low latency, meaning both can react quickly in an emergency. Yet, this is only useful for vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the traffic light. Without digital infrastructure to support the physical infrastructure, we would run the risk of building a ‘smart’ junction as part of a ‘dumb’ system.
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Understanding the requirements for connected vehicles in smart environments involves classifying those environments. Urban, rural and highways are different domains when it comes to the interactions vehicles will have, their density, variety and speed of interaction. They also differ in terms of the infrastructure available to dictate and inform the action. For instance, in urban environments complex interactions take place at moderate speeds, while on highways, the interactions are of higher speed but less varied. In both of these cases, there is a reliable infrastructure to host these connections.
17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml2QOtDU-dw
This is not necessarily the case however for rural environments, where the infrastructure is not reliable, can change dramatically between events and interactions take place at high speeds. Considering that most road fatalities, car dependency and growth in freight deliveries are in rural areas, much of the benefits expected from CAVs will depend on the adoption in these areas. It will be harder to rollout CAVs across the UK if we rely on the individual communication between vehicles and infrastructure in each of these domains. For example, smart traffic lights that can communicate directly with vehicles may be expensive, not including signalised junctions etc.
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Councils across the UK won’t necessarily be able to afford these, resulting in different levels of service. That’s another reason we favour infrastructure that is more digital than physical. Drawing on cloud-based infrastructure will help to ensure equality and scalability. We have a long way to go to get to a future scenario of vehicles that can drive themselves anywhere, at any time – Level 5 driving automation. However, we are starting to see vehicles that can operate fully autonomously in specific domains with common features – Level 4. This is our aim for example with the DRIVEN and MULTICAV projects, both partly funded by CCAV and Innovate UK.
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A digital infrastructure that can support autonomous vehicles as they travel and interact in specific environments relies heavily on two things. The first is safe, secure and reliable connectivity; even 5G will need a fibre optic backbone to hit the data speeds we need for the safe rollout of CAVs. So many of the changes we’ll see in the coming years may take place under our roads, rather than on them, as fibre optics are installed. The second is common data standards for reliable, accurate, up-to-date location data to be distributed. It is important that the provider of this data is trusted and neutral. That’s why the work Ordnance Survey are doing to enable connected environments is so important for the safe roll-out of CAVs. Collaboration on the DRIVEN project is already yielding impressive results. We already have cars manoeuvring in complex urban environments safely – and that is with only limited digital infrastructure in place17.
So far, we have mainly been concentrating on the aspects of traffic management and traffic sensor fusion. The next step in enabling connected environments is building the cloud-based digital infrastructure to distribute location data safely and reliably to support autonomous vehicles across selected domains.
Dr George Economides is Team Leader for CAVs at Oxfordshire County Council, the first council in the UK to include CAVs in their transport policy, master planning and to have a dedicated CAV team.
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Our projects
Enabling Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Environments (E-CAVE) The E-CAVE cloud-based data hub will host information about driving scenarios, infrastructure and safety messaging. We’re exploring how to use artificial intelligence to process imagery to support many typical mobility scenarios such as rerouting traffic around an obstacle.
Using open-source hardware and software E-CAVE is testing the efficacy of cloud-based vehicle-to-vehicle and infrastructure-to-vehicle communication.
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OmniCAV
Mobileye
Ordnance Survey is one of 11 partners in OmniCAV, a £3.9 million project to develop a world-first artificial intelligence-based simulation model for testing autonomous car safety.
Ordnance Survey and Mobileye®, an Intel Company, are joining forces to create a new infrastructure asset identification service designed to make asset maintenance more efficient, while also making operating fleets safer.
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Head Office: Explorer House Adanac Drive Southampton SO16 0AS United Kingdom OS Grid Reference: SU 37294 15540 Latitude: 50 56 15.75 N, Longitude: 1 28 13.56 W, Height: 73.84m +44 (0) 3456 050505 www.os.uk United Arab Emirates: +971 5045 17943 Saudi Arabia: +966 5352 93766 Singapore: +65 8497 1034 Hong Kong: +852 6117 1187 Presence in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Singapore and Hong Kong #EverythingHappensSomewhere