IBM, in association with NXP Semiconductors (News - Alert) N.V., has undertaken a technology demonstration project for enhancing traffic in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. As part of the pilot, braking, acceleration and location information are made available readily by the connected car. This data can also be used by the central traffic authority for analysis, resulting in detection and resolution of road network problems.

In a statement, Ab Oosting, European Union Project Manager, Collaborative Region of Eindhoven SRE said, "The trial successfully showed that anonymous information from vehicles can be analyzed by local traffic authorities to resolve road network issues faster, reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. By receiving the information in real time, road authorities can utilize mobile technologies to immediately deploy emergency response teams and road workers to resolve issues. Traffic center staff can promptly respond and manage traffic flows away from accidents and dangerous traffic situations."

Numerous worldwide transportation paths meet at the city region of Eindhoven. In this area, even very tiny episodes can result in crucial penalties for the complete system. A grand Road Safety Programme was recently unveiled by the European Commission, whose objective is to reduce traffic deaths by at least half in Europe by 2020. European road conditions and safety can be enhanced by intelligent transport systems. The regional government was offered insights for managing roads, decreasing traffic congestion and augmenting road safety as part of a one year pilot project.

For the pilot, 200 cars were fitted with a device holding the NXP telematics chip "ATOP" by IBM (News - Alert), NXP and its associates. The chip collected important information from the central communication system of the car or CAN-bus. Other important sensor information, indicating potholes or icy road, was also collected inside the vehicle before sending the information to the cloud-enabled IBM Smarter Traffic Center.

With the help of IBM analytics, initial information from the vehicles collected using 1.8 billion sensor signals uncovered 48,000 incidents, like heavy rain, black spots, switching on of hazard lights or fog, in six months. The IBM SmartCloud Enterprise service handled and analyzed the contrasting information received from thousands of sensors.