Telematics – the Essential Cornerstone of Global Vehicle and Traffic Safety

The networking of active and passive safety (APIA) is the fundamental basis for comprehensive vehicle safety. Situation-relevant information relating to driver reactions, vehicle behaviour and traffic environment are fed into a crash probability calculator, which continually assesses the current crash risk and intervenes when necessary with appropriate measures to avoid a crash and reduce potential injuries. APIA provides effective protection not only for vehicle occupants but also for other, vulnerable road users. As this functionality up till now only relates to the vehicle itself, the next logical step is enhancement leading to the ultimate goal in safety performance, telematics. The integration of this embedded, invehicle wireless communication system allows Car-to-Car (C2C) and Car-to-Infrastructure (C2I) functionality for, e.g. hazard warning. This is an integral element of the cascaded Active Passive Integration Approach. This paper describes the current status in the functional potential attained by networking active and passive safety systems (APIA) and introduces the next ultimate step towards global vehicle and traffic safety, telematics.