Overview
Being a part of Intelligent Transport Systems, cooperative ITS (C-ITS or cooperative systems) encompass a group of technologies and applications that allow effective data exchange through wireless communication technologies between components and actors of the transport system, very often between vehicles (vehicle-to-vehicle or V2V) or between vehicles and infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure or V2I).
The deployment of C-ITS is an evolutionary process that will start with the less complex use cases. These are referred to as “Day-1-services”, encompassing messages about traffic jams, hazardous locations, road-works and slow or stationary vehicles, as well as weather information and speed advises to harmonise traffic. Using probe vehicle and infrastructure-related data, all C-ITS services shall be transmitted directly into the vehicles in a way that allows users to get informed but not distracted. The deployment of C-ITS faces many important issues still unresolved, such as legal, organisational, administrative, governing aspects, technical and standardisation issues as well as implementation and procurement issues.
C-Roads is a platform of Member States working on the deployment of harmonised and interoperable C-ITS services in Europe. The C-Roads Platform approach will pursue cooperation on a holistic level in order to cover all dimensions linked with the deployment of C-ITS, such as sharing experiences and knowledge regarding deployment and implementation issues, as well as user acceptance. It will follow a bottom-up approach that will include national pilots. These will form basic elements for a later pan-European C-ITS implementation. The national pilot initiatives will move on to cross-site testing which will allow them to grow together and achieve transnational interoperability. In this way C-Roads will ensure European cohesion of C-ITS deployment in the European Union with regards to a long-term roll-out.
C-Roads France is a pilot project whose objective is to develop and experiment innovative road C-ITS solutions. C-Roads France will push for the early adoption of flexible, interoperable and scalable C-ITS solutions, anticipating the commercialisation of equipped vehicles. It will develop 2 types of new end-user services: services in the urban environment and at the urban/interurban interface, and traffic information services increasing comfort on transit stretches. Hence, it will provide a consistent solution for the deployment of almost all Day-1 services and of some Day-1,5 services as defined by the EC C-ITS Platform.
The Action aims to reach a seamless continuity of services at the urban/interurban interface. It will provide enhanced and extended test fields including strategic sections of the TEN-T Core Network, key bottlenecks, black spots and interfaces with urban nodes, to reach a critical mass. The action is supported by 2 car manufacturers to maximise interoperability with the infrastructure and ensure future roll-out of vehicles.
C-Roads France advocates for a pragmatic and user-centric approach: the Action will develop a C-ITS smartphone application supporting early I2V (infrastructure-to-vehicle) services roll up and further scale up. The services will be supported by a hybrid technology enabling a seamless switch between ITS G5 and cellular for not safety-critical applications. C-Roads France builds on the results of SCOOP@F (CEF action 2014-EU-TA-0669-S). C-Roads France is part of the C-Roads Platform.
The main objectives of C-Roads France are: Transfer knowledge, gained expertise, experience and know-how to the C-Roads Platform; Support and contribute to the C-Roads Platform through the involvement of dedicated staff; Develop new services and use cases