“Is our road infrastructure fit for an increasingly automated traffic?” ERF -GSV event addresses key issues on automation

12 November 2018 | Vienna, Austria

The automation of vehicles is progressing steadily considering the growing number of assistance systems designed to relieve the driver. However, the existing  infrastructure was created at a time when automation was not yet an issue. Therefore, to ensure safe and efficient traffic with automated and non-automated vehicles in the future, it will be necessary to adapt our physical road infrastructure and expand it with digital elements.

This was the topic addressed on 12th November during an event co- organised by GSV (the Austrian Association for Transport and Infrastructure) and the ERF in the ‘Haus der Industrie’ in Vienna.

The panelists and keynotes invited to this event, among which the ERF President Rik Nuyttens, discussed on the importance of the road infrastructure in the process of automated driving. They also addressed the aspect of the time necessary to have highly automated systems and the necessity of cooperation between major stakeholders (infrastructure managers, automotive industry, system providers and of course public authorities).

In his statements, Rik Nuyttens also emphasised that traffic safety is a strong motivator to focus on automated driving, in particular if we consider the number of fatalities on our roads. Intelligent vehicles have enormous potential to drastically reduce the number of accidents and this is the reason why automated driving is strongly promoted by the European Commission.