Enhancing road weather information through vehicle infrastructure integration

Vehicle infrastructure integration (VII) represents a concept with the potential to aid in the reduction of weather-related accidents on U.S. roadways while increasing surface transportation mobility and efficiency. Technological advancements in the automotive and telecommunications industries have resulted in the ability of vehicles to acquire and use high temporal- and spatial-resolution information associated with environmental and roadway conditions. VII would enable vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications through dedicated short-range communications (wireless radio communication at 5.9 GHz). This capability could potentially serve as a means of gathering and distributing vehicle data in support of applications and products designed to diagnose and predict road weather conditions. It is believed that the inclusion of VII-enabled data in road weather applications will improve weather and road condition analyses and forecasts. A summary is given of vehicle data elements that are likely to contribute to development and improvement of road weather products. A synopsis of probable VII product enhancements is provided, along with examples of how vehicle data can be used in the application development process. Developing a broad understanding of how to use vehicle data properly will require a significant amount of research. Research needs aimed at addressing the technical issues and barriers associated with the use of VII-enabled data are discussed.