According to new research by US scientists, excess emissions of NOx can be linked to 38,000 premature deaths worldwide. Connected car technology company Tantalum has teamed up with leading data scientists from Imperial College London to build Air.Car, which will produce highly accurate, real-time NOx feedback journeys, enabling drivers to reduce the amount of emissions they are creating by using better driving techniques. For cities, states and federal authorities, Air.Car will enable the introduction of fair and effective emissions and congestion charging systems that will actually improve air quality.
Last year, Tantalum and Imperial College won a grant from Innovate UK’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicle competition to support their £2m (US$2.7m) collaborative project to deliver real-time NOx emissions estimation capability from an OBD (on-board diagnostic) device connected to the vehicle’s computer. Once perfected, Tantalum’s CO₂/NOx product will be able to provide a detailed understanding of the environmental impact of vehicles and the tools to minimize it. A vital part of the research and development is a 1,000-vehicle trial, where units are being installed in diesel vehicles to estimate real-time NOx emissions in major cities across the UK.
Announcing the start of the 1,000-vehicle trial at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tantalum’s CEO, Ozgur Tohumcu, said, “There’s a real buzz around CES this year about how we can use data cleverly to improve people’s lives. At Tantalum, we think the time and effort we are putting into ground breaking R&D to create Air.Car is part what the CES is talking about. It will be transformative for managing and reducing the silent killer, NOx, in the world’s towns and cities, including here in the USA.”
Tracey Morgan, managing director of trial participant Bristol Waste Company, noted, “We run a large fleet of vehicles across the city. Understanding the environmental impact of our operation is a key part of our sustainability plan, and our commitment to contributing to a cleaner and greener Bristol. The data from this trial, which will include at least 40 of our heavy vehicles, will enable us to make more informed decisions around which of them we use, at what times, and on which routes, to help us manage that impact.”
January 12, 2018
