Project News: Special Session on Field Operational Tests at ITS Congress

Date: 26 May 2008

The FESTA consortium, whose work is coordinated by ERTICO ITS Europe, will present the methodology developed, and plans for the implementation of Europe-wide Field Operational Tests in a special session at the 7th European congress on ITS in Geneva, Switzerland. The special session, organised by the European Commission DG Information Society, will take place on Friday 6 June 2008, 11.00-12.30.

Besides the presentation of the common European FOT methodology by FIAT and the University of Leeds, the session will unveil the plans for the two European large scale FOTs (integrated projects.) EuroFOT led by FORD and TeleFOT led by ERTICO Partner VTT of Finland were selected for funding in the FP7 call 2 by the DG Information Society and Media. In addition, the ERTICO-coordinated FOT-NET support action will demonstrate how to bring the expertise on FOT together in a network in order to improve and trigger more national and international large-scale initiatives in a harmonised way. Also, it plans a series of seminars on the FOT methodology targeting national large-scale FOTs for assessment of the impact of ICT-based systems to make sure results can be compared across different activities.

The ERTICO-supported EuroFOT IP will assess the impact of advanced driver assistance and preventive safety functions in real traffic conditions. It will test eight functions: forward collision warning and brake assistance; adaptive cruise control; speed limiting; lane departure and impairment warning; blind-spot information; safe human-machine interaction (HMI); curve speed warning; and fuel efficiency advice. It will involve 1500 vehicles from 11 European car manufacturers over three years. ERTICO will play a leading role in the EuroFOT dissemination and the organisation of the test vehicles centres.

The TeleFOT IP project, which will run for four years and involve 3000 drivers, will address problems of safe installation and use of nomadic and after-market devices in vehicles. Functions being tested cover three broad areas: promotion of safe driving; economic driving; and a novel navigator-retrofitted emergency alert system. FOTs will assess their impact on the efficiency of the transport system, usability, driver behaviour and accident causation, safety and the environment. The main emphasis of the work is on speed and traffic information, road condition and weather information and ‘green driving’ support. ERTICO is not part of the TeleFOT consortium but will maintain strong links through its partners and the FOT-NET support action.

For more information on the ERTICO FOT activities, please contact Maxime Flament, m.flament@mail.ertico.com