Heavy vehicles and heavy vehicle combinations have the greatest impact for road traffic in case of traffic accident. Whenever a heavy vehicle is involved in an accident, the risk of fatalities, material damages and total traffic stops increases dramatically. Therefore, it is essential to ensure maximum safety for heavy vehicles. The SafeTrucks project’s primary objective is to improve the safety of heavy traffic by providing warning and information data directly to the driver, based on real-time road weather conditions, traffic environment and vehicle’s individual dynamic conditions. This way we expect to be able to alert the driver about an emerging risk before it turns into critical hazards.
The existing traffic environment possesses various risks. Vehicles can be driven off the road due to an unexpected local road condition change. This may happen espe-cially on smaller roads where the road maintenance is slow to respond and no reliable, wide coverage information source of local road condition exists. Vehicles’ own general slipperiness warnings typically only react to the temperature change, which does not necessarily mean slippery conditions. A more accurate solution is required to provide trustworthy, real-time road condition information service, that would react to real, localized events and adapt information based on the vehicle’s own dynamics. Cross-wind is a special risk that does not affect normal passenger vehicles, but can be extremely risky for heavy vehicle combinations. Friction data, along with any warnings, needs to be processed and delivered to the driver in meaningful ways. It is essential to avoid any extra burden on the driver, who needs to be supported, not disturbed.