C-ITS: The Future of Traffic Management is Here
From plans to pilots: Right now, a great deal of effort is being spent on pilot projects within what we call Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems or C-ITS worldwide. What many people have seen as future scenarios are now actually tested in real-life, and we can soon expect to see results of how this technology helps secure, streamline, and automate our transport system.
The Technology
While Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) focus on digital technologies providing intelligence placed in vehicles or at the roadside, Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) focus on the communication between those systems. It can be communications between cars, cars and infrastructure, or cars and other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. C-ITS is in short the architecture and technology platform for future ITS services and provides the framework for all new ITS deployments.
C-ITS opens up many possibilities and allows more dynamic traffic management, which will potentially improve road safety dramatically. For example, infrastructure and vehicles equipped with C-ITS can communicate potential dangers to each other. This enables drivers to be informed about an upcoming situation in time to take corrective action and avoid potential fatalities.
Much attention is drawn to autonomous vehicles and futuristic scenarios and systems, but there is a lot of C-ITS applications near to market that can be adopted within a short time to save and improve the lives of drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, road workers, and other road-users ahead. As Q-Free is at the forefront of C-ITS, I am able to work on a vast array of real-life pilots that demonstrate how far we have actually come.
During my first month at work, I went to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. While others were playing at the casinos, we did something much more exciting. In collaboration with various partners, we set up a live C-ITS demonstration with seven to eight different services – ranging from information exchange about weather conditions, traffic jams, dangerous situations, road work, and hazardous locations. I quickly understood that C-ITS is something that will gain momentum.
Since then, I have been part of many exciting field trips, demos, and pilots. More recently, I have retrofitted equipment on a large number of hybrid cars that will be part of a pilot on road user charging in Norway.
In addition to providing a complete suite of C-ITS modules and run pilots, Q-Free is at the center of standardizing and validating C-ITS technology and ensuring that products are compatible across borders and continents. This makes Q-Free a unique place to work where no days are alike.
The Techspert
I got into Q-Free through an internship after my engineer studies in 2018. I have stayed here since, and I am planning to stay here a while. I studied Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in production management. I discovered through Q-Free that production management is about more than just the flow of goods in a value chain. It is also transferable for transport of both people and goods.
At Q-Free, I get to be a part of exciting projects and collaborate with great colleagues from all over the world, and I learn something new every single day. I have been employed with Q-Free since October 2018, and I am trusted with responsibilities and a huge variation in tasks. And that is something I really appreciate.
Hear more from Mats about C-ITS and his life in Q-Free in this video below:
Read more about our C-ITS solutions here
Want to know more about C-ITS, please contact us at marketing@q-free.com
Eager to join Mats and Q-Free? Send your Open Application here.