You are about to cross an intersection at high speed. What if
your car notifies you to slow down or not to overtake the vehicle ahead? How?
Systems send technical crash information, such as the force with
which the collision happened, the angle at which it happened etc. Result:
rescuers can send appropriate help and transport.
A system in your vehicle tells you about alternate routes.
Another helps you choose different modes of transportation. Press a button in
your car, and it automatically calls and notifies a call centre that you are in
need of help. Sitting at home, a doctor directs the emergency medical care of a
crash victim who is inside a moving ambulance.
These scenarios are getting real and the script revolves around
our lives. This is a new revolution that is about to take the transportation
industry by storm, in conjunction with IT.
Telematics, as it is called, can be broadly defined as
convergence of telecommunication and informatics. It finds use in various areas
such as healthcare and libraries, but another common and wide usage is in road
transportation systems. Here, it is referred to as vehicle telematics. In this
context, some define it as integration of wireless communications systems,
vehicle monitoring systems, and location devices.
After looking at the above examples, the first thing that
crosses the mind is the utility of telematics in the Indian context. With the
huge growth in automobile population, new technologies are desperately needed to
make the task of driving simpler and safer. It brings a ray of hope in the lives
of traffic-beaten people like us, in Delhi, who spend around three hours on road
every day, simply commuting between home and office. Add a couple of outdoor
meetings, and you end up spending more time on the road than in the office. With
4.7 mn vehicles on the roads, Delhi has the distinction of having more than 17%
of the cars that run in India, according to a publication by the Center for
Science and Environment. Another statistics says that Delhi has more cars than
the total number of cars in Gujarat and West Bengal. And other cities are
catching up fast.
Such huge numbers call for the intervention of IT to streamline
and automate the systems, for a smoother and safer on-road experience. Enter the
Intelligent Transportation System or ITS. It uses leading edge IT to improve
efficiency of the transport system. Telematics products help drivers by passing
on information about jams and roadblocks, and help prevent accidents. Advanced
Traffic Management Systems can monitor and improve the flow of traffic, and
optimize signal timings by using cameras, detectors, and communication systems.
Incident management systems provide tools for quick and efficient response to
accidents and emergencies. Data can be received through global positioning
systems and passed on to the drivers through wireless media. When archived, the
collected data can help town and transportation planners build optimal travel
routes.
There is little data available on the size of the market in
India. One analysis from Frost&Sullivan (www.transportationfrost.com )
estimates that the vehicle tracking systems segment of the telematics market
earned revenues of $6.4 mn in 2005 and these are likely to go up to $78.2 mn by
2011. By contrast, according to Japan's External Trade Organization
estimates, the corresponding market in Japan was worth $2.8 bn in 2002 and will
grow to $12 bn by 2011. Nearly 60% of the navigation systems in Japan carry
vehicle information and communication systems (VICS). These provide real-time
road traffic information about congestion, jams, etc. Therefore, there is an
obvious but latent market in India.
If motorists find the very low-end tools such as traffic updates on FM radio
useful, the utility of IT enabled full-blown systems cannot be ignored.