Traffic and congestion are major problems for cities across the world. These problems are poised to worsen in the future since these difficulties will increase as urban population centers continue to grow. Municipalities are under increasing pressure to improve their infrastructure; however, they have less space and tight budgets. Data gathered from traffic patterns are becoming part of the solution. This data addresses congestion, gridlock, pollution, and vehicular accidents. Based on accident reports, most cities typically decide where to place new electronic crosswalks, traffic lights, turn restrictions, medians, and other upgrades.

The difficulty with relying on these reports alone is that drivers don’t mention avoided accidents to the police, etc. This situation can mean that an intersection has become dangerous, but city officials have no way to know until it’s too late. Without analytics, cities are powerless to prevent initial accidents and injuries. Instead, they have to react after incidents happen, and analytics can help pinpoint problem areas before issues even arise. 

Telematics Data from IoT-Enabled Devices

Using what’s known as the Internet of things data (IoT), cities can begin the transition to smart cities. Large urban centers have hundreds of traffic cameras; but, it’s almost impossible to manage every individual camera feed. Traffic cameras are upgraded by using analytics to pinpoint problematic areas. Analytics monitors the bulk of the data collected. Meanwhile, city employees can pay closer attention to data feeds from essential regions. Telematics, a subset of IoT, utilizes sensors like GPS mounted on vehicles.

Numerous systems already exist, such as taxis, buses, etc. These vehicles use sensors to monitor speed, braking, and maneuvering to identify dangerous drivers. For instance, if cars are braking hard in a specific intersection or on a particular road, there may be a need for a turn lane. Telematics can also incorporate data gathered from outside vehicles. Houston is a prominent example of a city that uses IoT devices outside vehicles to monitor air quality. Vehicle-mounted cameras can also analyze interactions with pedestrians or on-the-ground traffic conditions.

This technology provides actionable information for smart cities in the same way and improves the effectiveness of infrastructure and transit services. Cities can only transition into intelligent cities by collecting and analyzing the correct data. Using telematics data, cities can make their existing infrastructure and future investments go much farther than otherwise possible. Cities that wait to utilize IoT tools will find themselves falling behind other municipalities at an increasingly rapid pace.

Municipal Vehicles Telematics Systems

One of the most accessible places for most cities to begin is by using their already-existing municipal fleets. Buses, waste-collection vehicles, emergency response vehicles, and others often already use various telematics systems. These municipal fleets serve a double function by applying analytics tools to these vehicles’ telematics systems. Using municipal vehicles’ telematics systems alongside data collected from private and other public vehicles adds to the data available to city employees. 

Commercial fleet operators may share anonymous telematics data if it helps improve fuel efficiency, driver productivity, and accident prevention. The U.S. Postal Service also shares its telematics data with cities, making it an accessible resource. The Postal Service uses more than 200,000 vehicles, making it the largest civilian vehicle fleet globally. Even a relatively small number of cars can give massive amounts of data. 

Geotab conducted a study in 2018 utilizing telematics data from more than 1.25M vehicles. The study analyzed the data these vehicles collected and concluded that a small number of cars could give actionable insights into cities’ air quality. As few as ten vehicles can map 50% or more of a small to medium-size city, 20 cars can map just under 80%. Small fleets can collect this data in a relatively short period. 20 vehicles could map 65% of a city in about three months and 45% in just a month. [1]

Telematics data can, contrary to many expectations, be far more effective and affordable than fixed IoT. In Washington D.C., about 50 municipal vehicles using air-quality sensors can map out 70% of the city in about 6 months and utilize at least five fixed air quality sensors. Building upon the fixed sensor network to cover 70% of this city would be incredibly expensive. Additionally, air quality can vary widely between individual city blocks. Vehicular sensors solve these problems at a fraction of the cost.

Backed by 40 Years of Expertise

Syrma SGS contributes our 40 years of design and manufacturing expertise spanning multiple diverse markets. We look forward to discussing how we can deliver world-class products for OEMs across the globe. We understand our home Indian market, familiar with its vast regulatory and selling environments. We foster growth opportunities within India through our strong technology incubation ecosystem. We also assist global OEMs in entering the Indian market by leveraging the local supply chain and favorable operating environments for cost reductions.

Our flagship Chennai location opened in 2006 and lies within a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for electronics manufacturing, offering economic incentives for imports and exports. This primary facility is within 90 minutes of the Chennai seaport and 20 minutes to the international airport. Additional road and rail connectivity links to the rest of India and beyond and infrastructure advantages with faster import and export clearances. We also have labor force flexibility, both technical and manual, to scale to demand rapidly.

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