The pilot, which will start in 2016, intends to assess the capability of current and emerging mobile network and location cloud technologies in supporting the timely communication of critical safety information, such as black ice or an animal on the road, sudden traffic build-up, or an accident.

The project will be the first to implement a road hazard warning messaging system as described in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Directive set out by the EU.

The project is being led by HERE, a specialist in mapping, navigation and location services, who will work together with traffic information management service company Infotripla.

The pilot will see drivers voluntarily share notifications about safety hazards and changing road conditions initially via a smartphone but later using low-latency communication, via a cloud, of data generated by a vehicle’s on-board sensors and the surrounding road infrastructure to other vehicles and smart devices on the road.

According to a recent forecast from automotive technology research firm SBD, by 2020 there will be some 33 million vehicles sold annually with built-in connectivity, generating more than 163 million terabytes of data each year via their on-board cameras and sensors. When shared across the road network using 4G/LTE and future 5G network technologies, these data could be utilized by vehicles to give them an awareness of road conditions beyond the reach of their sensors, and thus enable the driver or the vehicle itself to better plan driving manoeuvres. 5G technology raises the prospect of road hazard warnings being communicated via the cloud to relevant vehicles in a fraction of a second.

George Filley, who heads HERE’s Digital Transportation Infrastructure programme, said: “With this project, we will explore how technology within our reach today could make driving safer as cars get connected. There will be enormous amounts of data generated by a car’s on-board sensors that can be collected, analyzed and shared with others on the road. An important piece of the puzzle is to figure out how to provide relevant, low-latency information to the right people at the right time, and that is a problem we believe we can solve.”

The first phase of the pilot will focus on ensuring the technical maturity of the system. The second phase begins in the first half of 2016 on the E18 highway, the main road between Helsinki and Turku, as well as the Ring I and Ring III highways in the Greater Helsinki area, with initially up to 1,000 drivers expected to take part. The pilot phase is expected to complete by the end of 2017.