Exploiting Motor Vehicle Information and Communications Technology for Transportation Engineering

Technology already exists to capture and communicate a variety of information from motor vehicles. Automobiles are equipped with sensors and can reliably report their location, velocity, and condition via cellular telecommunications. Truck location tracking with global positioning systems is common, and prototype systems exist for characterizing surrounding traffic and roadway conditions. Given these advancements, we expect that future motor vehicles will be capable of reporting a wide variety of information about their own condition and the local environment, including the condition of the infrastructure on which they travel. Many uses exist for the vehicle- and infrastructure-related information that can be transmitted from motor vehicles. For example, fleet operators can take advantage of this information for better management of their own fleet, subject to privacy agreements with their own drivers. Similarly, this information can be used for traffic control purposes to improve travel times and safety. Even though it is becoming technologically feasible to use motor vehicles to transmit a variety of information collected through sensors, social, technical, and organizational barriers exist currently that limit the availability of this information mostly to the private use of the motor vehicle and drivers. In this paper, we describe our vision of how motor vehicle information and communications technology can be exploited for transportation engineering. We also discuss the social, technical, and organizational barriers that need to be overcome to achieve this vision.