New tech detects slippery roads to make driving on ice safer

Vehicles are warned in advance of a road's actual slipperiness with the automatic slipperiness detection system developed by scientists at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

While transmission of slippery road warnings to vehicles via, for example, SMS messages has been tested before but warnings have been based on estimates derived from sources such as weather forecasts. With the new system, it is possible to obtain direct information on road conditions. Slipperiness detection is based on a method developed by VTT, whereby changes in road conditions are detected in real time, based on data collected by the car's own sensors.

"The method entails estimating the difference in the speeds of the drive shaft and freely rotating axles in various driving situations, which enables deduction of the level of friction," said Senior Scientist Kimmo Erkkila.The system is capable of determining the slipperiness of a road on the basis of a drive of a few kilometres. The information is then passed on to the driver, before he or she has even noticed the change in road conditions.

After this, observations collected from all cars and the

related coordinates are transmitted wirelessly to a background system, which maintains a real-time slipperiness map and generates a log of the road conditions.

For each car that joins the system, the background system produces and transmits an individual data package on road conditions. This

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