ROMA. Great technologies are growing. Four years after the debut of the Car2X service – through which Audi-branded cars are currently able to warn each other in case of accidents, breakdowns, traffic jams, icy roads or poor visibility – here comes its natural evolution. Everything is based on an application that connects every single car with the cloud and a new platform, which allows you to estimate the variations in the coefficient of friction between tires and asphalt. A technology capable of detecting the slightest changes in road surface grip, sending data to the cloud for processing and finally alerting drivers even more quickly to potential dangerous situations.
Car2X’s Local Hazard Information technology analyzes different types of data – from electronic stability control (ESC) interventions to activation of light and rain sensors, wipers and headlamps, to emergency calls and when the airbags are deployed – and sends them to the cloud which then alerts other vehicles. The evolution of this technology now includes the use of high-precision collective data to make alerts even faster and more accurate. To do this, Audi uses an innovative data platform patented by the Swedish company NIRA Dynamics AB, developed together with HERE Technologies and Car.Software.Org, a division of the Volkswagen Group with responsibility for vehicle software.
The software on board the Audi can estimate the coefficient of friction between the tires and the road surface, using the data coming from the sensors, such as wheel slip and the information generated by the management of the set-up: indications that the car electronics receive constantly, not only in borderline situations. The anonymised data is then transmitted to the NIRA Dynamics AB cloud and combined with metadata, such as current and historical weather information, and then forwarded to HERE Technologies, whose location platform represents the road network in the form of a precise three-dimensional model.
At this point, data, metadata and localization are combined together and analyzed by the HERE servers, which then send the appropriate alerts to the cars that are in or are heading to the areas in question.
Of this whole process, what reaches the driver is a warning displayed in the Audi virtual cockpit or on the head-up display. The more vehicles providing data, the more the system can learn, analyze, map and thus share information with drivers.
In 2021, more than 1.7 million Volkswagen Group vehicles in Europe will process data for this information service; in 2022, adding the Audi, Volkswagen, Seat, Škoda, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini brands, there will be over 3 million.
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