As part of its commitment to making connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) safer and more efficient, Connected Signals has announced the public release of digital intersection stop line data.
Oregon-based connected vehicle data analytics company Connected Signals provides predictive, real-time, traffic signal information using existing infrastructure. A leading vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) systems developer, its data, derived using sophisticated proprietary models, supports applications that improve safety, increase fuel efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and improve traffic flow.
The company has also developed a patent-pending visual traffic signal detection system that is capable of finding traffic signals and determining their state in live 4K, 30fps, video. Its EnLighten smartphone traffic signal ‘countdown’ application is currently being piloted in Oregon in partnership with BMW.
The newly-released stop line data is a critical piece of information that gives the precise location at which drivers are expected to stop when encountering red lights. As the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry gains traction, traffic light-related data and stop line information will become essential for fully autonomous vehicles to coexist with their human-operated counterparts.
In the interest of advancing the AV industry generally, the company is now making this data available free of charge via OpenStreetMap. Connected Signals will update the stop line dataset as more data becomes available, with an initial focus on providing the data for those municipal areas for which it already has real-time traffic-light data. Updates to the data can be submitted by the public, but will go through a vetting process before being included in AV software and equipment.
Partnering closely with municipalities, the company eliminates the complexities of securely gathering real-time signal data, by making it readily available in a standard format. Connected Signals combine this data with map, GPS, and speed limit information, and then apply proprietary analytics and algorithms to predict upcoming traffic light behavior. That information is then delivered to vehicles via cellular networks, an approach that requires neither costly municipal infrastructure investments, nor the addition of dedicated hardware to every vehicle.
“Our decision to make stop line data, which is missing from existing datasets, such as those provided by Here and Tele Atlas, available for free, is part of our ongoing commitment to improving the safety of autonomous and connected vehicles,” explained Connected Signals’ CEO, Matt Ginsberg. “We hope our decision to contribute this data to the public domain ultimately enhances intersection safety for both autonomous and connected vehicles.”
