The Challenge
In the U.S. alone, over 1.2 million crashes annually are weather-related, stemming from poor road conditions during rain, snow, sleet, and ice. More than 70 percent of weather-related accidents happen on wet pavement. About 156,000 crashes occur due to icy roads, while black ice, a transparent coat of ice on roads that cannot be seen easily, is a major contributor to road fatalities. According to a recent study:
“the occurrence time and location of this natural phenomenon are extremely difficult to predict because rapid transitions between dry, wet, snow, and ice are common on such surfaces.” The study points out that “the coefficient of friction under such conditions is lower than that under dry and wet surface conditions, which affects the stability of the vehicles and the probability of traffic accidents.”
Current Solutions
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) were designed to increase the safety of driving a vehicle and frequently use a human-machine interface to improve the driver’s ability to quickly respond to potential threats through early warning and automated systems. However, ADAS mainly relies on visual data and is sometimes augmented by weather data. However visual data may not accurately assess braking distance. The absence of grip data leads to cautious assumptions in ADAS, which significantly impact the driving experience. Weather data too is insufficient, since road response to weather may vary greatly due to road topography, pavement quality, and the frequency of snow removal.
The Tactile Solution
Cloud-enhanced grip maps provide drivers and vehicles with real-time information about road conditions and tire grip, delivering highly accurate and relevant insights that allow drivers to identify potential hazards ahead and take informed actions.
Road conditions
Tactile Mobility’s software solution generates data on road conditions in real time, improves tire grip estimation, and prevents weather-related accidents.
Tire Grip
Using existing sensors such as wheel speed, wheel angle, engine torque, and more, it creates virtual sensors such as grip estimation, weight estimation, and tire health which are utilized to calculate the unique grip of each vehicle using its’ unique attributes.
How Does It Work?
In-vehicle in-ECU embedded software alongside a crowdsourcing cloud system.
Embedded onboard technology gathers data from vehicle sensors, processes and analyzes it, and delivers actionable insights for drivers and ADAS
How The Map Is Created?
Vehicle characteristics combined with surface attributes and weather data are analyzed in the cloud to provide a real-time grip map
Watch The Demo Video
Connected Vehicles Create a Global Grip Map
Technology that Delivers Value
Drivers
Provides real-time information on road conditions and tire grip, allowing drivers to identify potential hazards and take informed actions. Governments and municipalities Can monitor road conditions and prioritize maintenance and repair efforts. This can help reduce the number of weather related accidents and improve overall road safety.
OEMs and Tier-1s
Provides valuable insights into vehicle-road dynamics, to enhance safety features and improve driving experience.
Fleet operators
Monitors and optimizes the performance of a fleet of vehicles, reducing maintenance costs and downtime while improving driver safety.
The Bottom Line
The real-time insights into road conditions and expected friction levels provided by cloud-enhanced grip maps such as the innovative solution recently introduced by Tactile Mobility, can reduce the risk of accidents caused by adverse weather conditions.
By calculating the unique grip of each vehicle, cloud-enhanced grip maps deliver highly accurate and relevant insights to the driver. This proactive approach empowers drivers to make informed decisions and stay safe on the road.
