A section of Interstate 85 in southern Georgia, nicknamed The Ray, is about to become the latest test track for connected driving, reports GovTech.com. For the moment, the project is limited to an 18 mile stretch of highway (ending at the Alabama border) though there is talk of expansion. The project is a joint venture coordinating the resources of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDoT), Panasonic and The Ray.
“It’s kind of giving that whole data management piece a test-drive to see how this would work,” said Andrew Heath, a GDot state traffic engineer. “How could it be scalable moving forward? So that when this graduates to not just six locations and four vehicles, but thousands of locations and tens of thousands of vehicles.”
Activities being measured include speed, location and direction data. The technology will also record information about vehicle operations like windshield wiper usage and hard-braking. The harvested data will provide useful information that will be used to help develop traffic management systems. Coordinating smart highway data with a smart city grid is another project goal.
“By 2022, V2X-enabled vehicles will be rolling off assembly lines and onto roads,” said Chris Armstrong, a Panasonic VP, and the head of its V2X business operations. “If through this program, Panasonic is able to help GDOT plan for a future where they are benefiting from statewide deployment of this technology and the actionable information it provides, we’ve achieved our goal.”
August 16, 2019
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