The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority has partnered with Waycare to use real-time data from connected vehicles and advanced roadway sensors to expedite the detection of traffic incidents and improve response and clearance times.
Waycare’s system uses machine learning and AI to immediately alert the Mobility Authority’s traffic management center personnel of potential crashes and hazards. They are then able to verify these incidents before notifying emergency responders and drivers through tools such as Waze and Twitter. The Mobility Authority and Waycare are also working on a project to send travel alerts directly back to connected vehicles.
The Mobility Authority operates six toll roads in the Austin, Texas area including one variably priced express lane project on State Loop 1 (MoPac). Waycare says their technology can be valuable on that highly congested and narrow corridor where smooth and safe traffic operations are critical to the driver experience.
“Connected vehicle technology is transforming the way we operate our roadways,” Jeff Dailey, Deputy Executive Director at the Mobility Authority, said in a statement. “As connected, semi-autonomous and electric vehicles proliferate, we want to be at the forefront of providing a safer, more predictable, and reliable travel experience for our customers.”
In addition to detecting incidents, Waycare says the technology is able to predict where and when traffic incidents are likely to occur, enabling traffic managers to concentrate on specific areas for mitigation efforts and giving roadway designers the ability to study the cause of crashes and to pursue operational improvements.
The Mobility Authority is currently expanding Waycare’s coverage to all of its roadways and discussions are underway regarding a potential region-wide deployment of the technology.
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SOURCE: Waycare / Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority
