Transport, travel, and roads are an integral part of every country and make a difference in every citizen's life. The well-being and development of a country significantly depend on the road and traffic of the country. India is focusing a lot on smart cities with safe, efficient, and congestion-free transport. With the exponential modernization comes the need for safer and smarter roads, as roads are said to be the nervous system of a nation.

However, the world witnesses an alarmingly high number of road accidents and related property damage. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), approximately 1.35 million people die every year due to road traffic accidents, and up to 50 million more suffer non-fatal injuries. 

Undoubtedly such high numbers point towards a dire need for mechanisms to improve the scenario. This might be done in many ways, including improved cars, better roads, or better driver/ vehicle monitoring. IoT has played a critical role in the direction due to its ability to make things more coherent, connected, and effective.

IoT has proved its potential in vehicle maintenance, navigation, monitoring leading to improved transportation. 

Let's see how IoT can improve road transportation.

Connected cars

The global market for car data could grow as high as $750 billion by 2030, according to McKinsey & Company. And more than 250 million connected vehicles will be on the roads by 2020, according to Gartner. Connected vehicles incorporate a large number of sensors that make communication with the cloud, other vehicles and devices possible. This is great progress towards the improvement of road safety.

As an example, all Tesla cars operate as a network, and when one car learns something, they all learn it. Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that the company's autopilot service is constantly learning and improving thanks to machine learning algorithms, the car's wireless connection, and detailed mapping and sensor data that Tesla collects. These cars use the power of AI and machine learning to predict the behavior of cars and pedestrians in different circumstances.

Connected cars have various benefits such as:

• Vehicle performance and maintenance monitoring help in evaluating the quality of the vehicle and need for maintenance of the vehicle. This way, pollution caused by these vehicles can be reduced, and the health of the vehicle stays closely monitored.
• Improved control and safety can be achieved through IoT-enabled cars. In case of over-speeding, the notification gets displayed on the car's windscreen alerting the driver.
• Ensuring safe driving experience with real-time assistance, navigation, and even monitoring driving patterns and any emergency situation. Additionally, along with the state of the traffic, IoT drivers can receive updated information on the state of the roads, i.e., potholes, ice, grade changes, black spots, etc.

Intelligent traffic lights

These IoT devices (Intelligent traffic lights) communicate with the sensors of the connected cars and provide valuable information about the traffic light status, such as color or time to green to the driver. This aims to reduce accidents around traffic lights and reduce their violation too through better real-time monitoring. 

Geolocation

In a recent development, Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "I want to assure the House that within one year all physical toll booths in the country will be removed. It means that toll collection will happen via GPS. The money will be collected based on GPS imaging (on vehicles)." This will drastically improve traffic congestion and delays, along with improved real-time vehicle monitoring.

Telematics

Various transportation agencies and fleet management companies use telematics to understand, manage, and improve driver behavior. Telematics employs the usage of a "black box" in a vehicle that is using GPS. The idea is to use the mobile phone network to measure speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering movements. This data is then transferred to servers, where it is analyzed to provide driver feedback. This encourages better driving practices and closer monitoring.

In continuation of the efforts to amalgamate technology in the field, Netradyne is a technology company that leverages expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, and Edge Computing to bring transformational solutions to the transportation industry. The company was founded in 2015 by Avneesh Agrawal and David Julian, with a mission is to quickly bring cutting-technology to market with solutions that can make a meaningful impact. The company is the first commercial vehicle technology provider to combine Artificial Intelligence with video to detect, reason and determine the causality of events.

Autonomous cars

Self-driving cars or autonomous cars use a variety of sensors to perceive their surroundings. Sensors such as radar, lidar, sonar, GPS, odometry, and inertial measurement units provide information necessary for appropriate navigation paths. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify obstacles and relevant signage. Google Waymo, with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they're going, has already made some groundbreaking progress in this field. MG Motor India has joined hands with IIT Delhi's Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART) for research in the field of electric and autonomous vehicles.

 Improved emergency services

In case of emergency, connected cars send automatic messages and warnings to emergency services, assisting in providing rapid attention to reduce accident-related death rates. Raksha SafeDrive is a dedicated Internet of Things (IoT) device that is kept inside the car as an accident management system. Mr. Prasad Pillai created the device with an aim to reduce the time in which help reaches road accident victims or those stuck in some road emergency. Raksha SafeDrive can be used in all kinds of vehicles, like cars, auto-rickshaws, bikes, trucks, etc.

Nowadays, some vehicles are incorporated with fatigue sensors that can detect deviations in the driver's normal behavior pattern and raise the alarm in danger or if the driver falls asleep.

Such intelligent vehicles can make decisions on their own with the data that they receive in real-time. This improves the overall driving experience and enhances safety. These solutions may look too expensive at the moment, but they are the reality of the future, and there is no way we can escape that. This progress would bring about changes that would avoid accidents, reduce traffic congestion, and provide assistance even in remote locations.

The future is all set to witness autonomous cars which are environment friendly, interactive, and smart.