A new way to think about snowstorms

Official predictions are out for winter. Bundle up Detroit, Seattle and Montreal. Northern parts of the U.S., and swaths of Canada are looking at a colder, wetter winter, thanks to La Niña, which tends to deliver higher than average precipitation and below-average temperatures along the northern rim of the U.S. and Canada, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. La Niña typically brings more-than-normal snowfall around the Great Lakes and northern Rockies.

A vision of transportation’s future

As cities stock up on deicers and snowplow drivers prepare for long nights, tech companies, automakers, policymakers and others at ITS World Congress in Montreal are talking about ways to make transportation safer in foul weather. Held annually, ITS World Congress brings together people to hash out how transportation is addressing the challenges facing our mobile, connected societies now and in the future.

Panasonic experts at ITS are highlighting ways the company’s diverse technology is shaping intelligent transportation infrastructure and how the company sees transportation in the future. Our vision revolves around sustainability, easier and more efficient movement through cities and zero accidents.

Preventing accidents through better data

One way to approach zero accidents is through better data. Modern vehicles are comprised of millions of lines of code and according to our estimates for Colorado alone, vehicles traveling in the state generate 592.3 gigabytes of data per hour. That works out to 2.12 billion messages every hour speaking volumes about vehicle status and activities.

The data includes things like windshield wiper and traction control status that provide valuable context on road conditions. It is all part of V2X, or vehicle to everything–shorthand for connected vehicle communication technology. V2X leverages auto data, and makes it available to external sources through standard communication protocols.

Providing info earlier to help drivers make decisions

The data can be received by infrastructure, which is V2I vehicle to infrastructure communication, and can lead to inferences about road conditions and inform decisions about sending out snowplows, applying deicers and other road maintenance or operations. In addition, messages can be sent to vehicles from the infrastructure to communicate things to drivers like accident ahead. Better data, provided faster to systems and to people could help cities to plow streets earlier, spend less money and save lives. We know this already. What’s new is commercial deployment of such V2I.

Pioneering work in Colorado

In Denver, at its Peña Station hub, Panasonic created an ecosystem that collects travel data from cars and other sources and communicates that information to vehicles, external systems, and the world. The ecosystem, part of its Connected Vehicle Demo Center, comes out of a collaboration between Panasonic and the Colorado Dept. of Transportation to create the first production-grade, U.S. connected vehicle system in which real-time data would be shared across vehicles, infrastructure and people with a goal to improve safety, lower fuel consumption and reduce congestion.

This is a tremendous time to be involved in auto tech and our V2X ecosystem is one example of innovation helping to shape the future of transportation. The pace of change, the ideas, the willingness to commit to invention has never been greater. In addition to V2X, experts at ITS World Congress focused on driver-less cars and vehicle electrification. Watch this space for more on both.