The Qatar Mobility Innovation Centre (QMIC) will deploy the region’s first Connected Vehicle technology on a pilot phase in Doha by March, a top official has said.
“We are getting ready for the piloting of the Connected Vehicle Technology which will be the first in the entire region. Hopefully, it will be launched within the first quarter of this year, in the next two to three months’ time,” Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, executive director and CEO of QMIC told Gulf Times.
“We have been making the preparations for over a year and almost all the necessary steps have been completed. We are going for the deployment of the pilot phase of a national field operational test in Doha by using around 30 to 50 equipped vehicles,” explained Dr Abu-Dayya.
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Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya
“We have already deployed the road sensors. We have also deployed necessary onboard units in these cars with real users. We are going to make use of the Qatar University campus and the adjacent places for the deployment of the technology. It is a large area and has a big number of vehicles and people moving in and out,” said Dr Abu-Dayya.
According to the official, all the logistics for the launch of the technology have almost been completed. He noted: “This is a pilot phase and it will run for a year to understand the domain at a large scale. It will help us to collect a lot of data and analyse it as well as to understand the usability of what works and what does not.
“It will become a baseline for doing something bigger. It will help the country decide what needs to be done and if there is need for investing big in it for national deployment or not,” said the official.
"Through the pilot, we aim to get the feedback from the drivers about safety and their awareness about the technology. We look forward to find out the most suitable option, applications and services in terms of road safety for Qatar. It will also enable us to identify any deployment problems,” he maintained.
US Department of Transportation studies show that Connected Vehicles, if fully implemented, could prevent up to 80% of road accidents as the technology aims to avoid accidents completely.
“The cars (on the roads) will send a lot of data and understand each other. If there is any danger or any impending danger ahead, the cars will communicate with each other. The cars can alert the driver before an accident can happen. Either, the cars will send an alert or maybe the cars themselves will act,” Dr Abu-Dayya said.
The Connected Vehicles Technology will give alerts about the speed limits and
road diversions among others. This can be car to car communications as well as infrastructure to cars communication.
The technology will change intelligent transportation by enabling wireless communication among vehicles and infrastructure in a seamless manner and using a common standard or language. This will enable the realisation of next generation road safety systems and is considered a key enabler for future autonomous and self-driving vehicles.