Autonomous: TRL Launches New Safety Tool, Calculates Riskiest Routes

Transport Research Laboratory, the global centre for innovation in transport and mobility, has developed a new advanced vehicle technology route risk tool. The tool enables collision risk to be calculated route-by-route and adjusted depending on different in-car technologies. The tool was developed as part of the DRIVEN automated vehicle project, a £13.6m initiative with matched funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

This critical new tool is ideal for local authorities, National Road Authorities, fleet managers, insurance companies and automotive manufacturers, all of whom have significant interest in understanding more about the risks associated with any given route across the UK, and how these risks are changing with ever more sophisticated driving technologies.

It also has great benefits for insurers and brokers, especially those who offer telematics insurance, as they can track vehicles which use the high risk routes for commuting or business for example.

Using TRL’s new route risk tool, organisations will be able to map routes across the UK and see the collision risk specific to that route. In addition, users can assess the impact of various vehicle technologies and safety measures. A user can see collision risks per vehicle km for each technology measure in operation; observe changes in risk following the enablement of each vehicle technology; and compare multiple routes based on the risk assessment.

This new advanced vehicle technology route risk tool has been developed to help the wider automotive community understand and assess the possibility of future collision risks. With an ability to assess the impact of a wide array of in-vehicle technologies, this new tool can provide organisations with the data to map out the safest routes, and to identify the vehicle technologies that enable the safest journeys.