ICT4CART Final Event was successfully held at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg on 15th October 2021. During the event, the ICT4CART consortium presented its results and achievements, and showcased the activities carried out in the four pilot sites (Austria, Germany, Italy and the Italian-Austrian border) and the different use cases explored throughout the last three years.
On 15th October 2021, the consortium of the EU funded project ICT4CART held its final event at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. Bringing together key stakeholders in connected and automated driving from the private sector, academia, public and European institutions, the ICT4CART final event offered a unique opportunity to present the results achieved by the consortium over the last 36 months and showcased how its solutions will improve the daily life of EU citizens, while creating new market opportunities for large companies and SMEs.
After the official kick off by Mr. Vladimir Vorotovic (ERTICO-ITS Europe), Dr. Vasilis Sourlas (ISENSE Group of ICCS) offered an overview on the scope and goals of the ICT4CART project, which was to design, implement and test a versatile ICT infrastructure that will enable the transition towards higher levels of automation (up to L4) in real-life conditions. As Dr. Sourlas underlined, the ICT4CART technology addresses existing gaps and works with specific key ICT elements, namely hybrid connectivity, data management, cyber-security, data privacy and accurate localisation.
Mr. Pedro Alfonso Perez Losa, ICT4CART Project Officer at CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency), and Mr. Georgios Sarros, Project Officer at CINEA, highlighted the benefits of self-driving cars, the progress in automated driving research activities and the relevance that Automated Road Transport and Cooperative, Connected & Automated Mobility (CCAM) have for the European Commission, which is also stressed by the EU funding devoted to this innovation area.
During the second part of the event, several technical partners took the stage showcasing the latest developments in Connected Automated Driving (CAD): Markus Wimmer (Nokia), Dr. Michael Buchholz (Ulm University), Dan Langford (Urban Foresight), Daniele Brevi (Links Foundation), Gottfried Allmer (Autobahnen und Schnellstraßen Finanzierungs Aktiengesellschaft – Asfinag), Jan Strohbeck (Ulm University) and Martin Herrmann (Ulm University).They mostly emphasised on how ICT4CART has raised the bar of CAD innovation and the results achieved in the four pilots (Germany, Austria, Italy and across the Italian and Austrian border).
The technical session was opened by Mr. Markus Wimmer (Nokia), who showcased key results in hybrid mobile radio network communication infrastructure for automated driving (TRL3 & TRL4). Mr. Wimmer focussed on achievements in performance and reliability, such as the successful testing of hybrid communication in the German, Italian, and Austrian test sites.
Dr. Michael Buchholz (Ulm University) introduced the project’s achievements in data and IT services like the implementation of data exchange components and management services, as well as the implementation of services in several use cases (parking services, fleet management services, adaptation of automation level in vehicles services).
The event continued with other consortium members like Dan Langford (Urban Foresight), who focussed on possible scenarios and business models, related to different automation levels and the implementation of different pricing policies.
Before showcasing the videos from each test site, Daniele Brevi (LINKS Foundation) emphasised on the importance of ensuring the integrity, privacy and reliability of the data used for automated driving purposes. He also discussed the development and integration of cyber-security solutions for enhanced end-to-end protection which is a crucial aspect to ensure safe implementation and use of the technology.
In rounding up ICT4CART, its biggest achievements, results and learnings from the pilot sites came to light. Jan Strohbeck (Ulm University) and Martin Herrmann (Ulm University) showcased relevant use cases from the German test site in Ulm like the smart parking and IoT services, the intersection crossing, and the use of a virtual mirror to ‘see’ surrounding traffic in urban environments. The latter, thanks to environment model from the developed infrastructure, makes occluded road users “visible” to the connected automated vehicle. Complementary, the Italian pilot site worked on several uses cases such as wrong way, VRU detection, lane merging, and toll station and queue, as showcased by Daniele Brevi (LINKS Foundation). With testing carried out both on highway (Trento A22) and urban environment (City of Verona), the Italian pilot site covered a very broad spectrum of cases to improve CAD even further.
Finally, as highlighted by Gottfried Allmer (ASFINAG), full hybrid WiFi-based ITS-G5 and coverage on the Italian and Austrian testing sites will remain in place even after the end of the project. This brings permanent benefits to the region and sets it up for a future with ground-breaking automated and connected driving. Last but not least, the testing showcased that data content from Traffic Management Centers needs to be further developed to support future higher automation levels.
ICT4CART:
ICT4CART is a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme (grant agreement No 768953) and it is coordinated by the ISENSE Group of the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICSS) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). 21 partners from 9 European countries joined their forces with a common vision, to build a sustainable future for connected and automated vehicles, adapting and improving technological advances from the telecommunication, automotive and IT industries in order to provide the ICT infrastructure and to enable the transition towards higher levels of vehicle automation (up to L4). More information about the ICT4CART project and the Final Event can be found at www.ict4cart.eu.
