PUNE: Telecom experts have said there is an increasingly significant role for telematics in the road safety area as more and more cars are getting connected and becoming more intelligent.In a special paper released by the Society of Telecommunications Engineers on the occasion of World Telecom Day on Friday, the experts said telematics – the integrated use of telecommunications and informatics – can help manage live traffic updates, smart routing and tracking or rapid roadside assistance in case of accidents or breakdown.Automatic toll transactions, parking management, on-board entertainment, usage-based insurance and lots of other services can be brought within the ambit of telematics for traffic management, the paper underlined.

Road traffic safety is a global concern, not only for public health and injury prevention, but also to improve efficiencies in traffic management. A lot is being done in the area of Intelligent Transport Systems, ensuring driver safety that utilises a combination of computers, communications, positioning and automation technologies. It also includes in-car radars for collision avoidance, developing standards for safe user interfaces and communication systems in vehicles as well as optimising driving performance by eliminating unsafe technology-related distractions while driving.

The paper said tracking the wind speed, moisture on the surface due to oil spills and speed of vehicles, providing emergency call services and wide-angle cameras can be integrated into one highway management system in the near future. “A driver can receive this information through a pre-registered SIM card. Applications can send warning signals to drivers when a car’s oil or tyre pressure needs checking. Apps can also beam trip plans to the car’s navigation system,” the paper said.

Milind Pande, project director, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, said that mobile-to-machine or machine-to-mobile (M2M) communication was an emerging area in the field of telecom technologies. “It is possible to develop solutions for traffic congestion, accidents and emergency services that will change the way we look at infrastructure like expressways and can make it much safer,” he said.

In Asia, traditionally the market is driven by navigation and its associated services. The M2M market in India has now started evolving. The average age of car buyers is decreasing to 26 and with the country becoming more and more tech-savvy, a 3G and 4G-ready India is one of the fastest growing as well as the second largest telecom markets in the world.

Pande added, however, that there are certain challenges while implementing telecommunication systems on the highways in India. The sheer volume of vehicles makes it challenging for any organisation to capture and analyse high-speed data, integrate data coming from different devices and manage the system. There is no parameter of standardisation as far as these systems are concerned in India. Also, a major challenge is that even the high-end smartphone users are unaware of many useful applications, he said.

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com