Dive Brief:
- Wireless provider AT&T Connected Solutions and automotive industry technology supplier Denso Products and Services Americas are partnering to leverage the data available from many late-model vehicles to improve road safety from connected vehicles.
- These connected vehicles can communicate with each other as well as with traffic signals, work and school zones and emergency response areas.
- “We can collect the information from the vehicle based on their presence, based on the situation, the speed or the urgency or anything related to safety,” said Usman Zafar, associate vice president at AT&T Connected Solutions.
Dive Insight:
A recent report from the Governors Highway Safety Association and Cambridge Mobile Telematics showed how anonymized data from connected vehicles and smartphones can reveal patterns of accident-inducing driving behavior, enabling safety officials to address trouble spots. Connected vehicle data takes that one step further, enabling real-time response to potentially dangerous situations.
Zafar cited the example of a wrong-way driver: A connected vehicle would alert the driver to the error as well as direct other connected vehicles in the area how to avoid the danger and inform local authorities who can intercede, he said.
The value of connected vehicles goes beyond collision avoidance. “We are working very closely with the public sector” to connect cameras and other sensors with traffic signals so that emergency vehicles will get a green light, reducing response time, Zafar said. AT&T’s intelligent transportation platform also adjusts to federal, state and city requirements, he said.
For example, the city of Arlington, Texas, is one of the host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. AT&T and the city are working together on traffic, parking and emergency response management using cameras and intelligent sensors, Zafar explained. He sees more possible uses for connected vehicle data, such as using computer vision with multiple video streams to detect and alert authorities to an unfolding dangerous situation.
AT&T connects many of the technology-enabled vehicles on the road through its contracts with major automakers, according to Zafar. “Our focus is to continue to serve the transportation industry,” Zafar said.
