The City of Windsor, with the help of a new partnership with Ford Smart Mobility Canada, hopes to save time and a lot of money on future road projects.
Windsor is the first city in Canada to sign onboard to Ford Smart Mobility's Safety Insights platform, which tracks data from vehicles on the road to find trouble spots where collisions, and even near-misses, occur.
The company is already partnering with a number of cities in the U.S. including Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Pittsburgh.
It works like this: most newer model vehicles are equipped with a device, much like a cellular modem. Ford gives drivers the option if they want to device activated or not. Those who do activate the device transmit data to Ford Smart Mobility. The company can then track locations where the vehicle is involved in collisions or even near-misses.
Mayor Drew Dilkens said it will allow the city "to gain greater and more timely insights using smart data technology needed to improve traffic flows and safety."
The city already tracks much of that information through traditional collision statistics, but the process can take years to collect and analyze. Under the partnership, the information can be useful within months.
It will also be more cost-effective given that the data can be used to predict how road improvements will work.
"In general, Ford has over 3-million connected vehicles on the road today that are actively capturing and transmitting data," said Cal Coplai with Ford Mobility Safety Insights. "The exciting thing is that is only going to continue to grow as you get more and more new vehicles on the road."
In the Windsor area, he estimates there are tens of thousands of vehicles equipped with the device and transmitting data.
"There's been a lot of research that's been conducted of what sort of data input do you need to understand overall driving trends and driving behaviours," Coplai continued. "That number can range any where from just two per cent of what's occurring on the road -- at the high end, maybe ten per cent. So, even if you're in that low range you can still infer really meaningful trends."
The project is still in its initial phases, but it should be operational within months.
