The Sustainability Award winners were announced at the ATZlive Congress. The “Digital Guardian Angel” solution by T-Systems and Continental received an award in the Sustainable Solutions category. The “Sustainability Awards in Automotive” were presented in Berlin at the specialist conference for automotive engineers to celebrate outstanding examples of sustainable contributions to mobility.
Vulnerable road users such as cyclists, pedelec and scooter riders, or pedestrians often go unnoticed in road traffic. The aim of an app from Continental and Deutsche Telekom/T-Systems is to protect them. The Digital Guardian Angel gives cyclists as well as pedestrians greater visibility thanks to real-time networking and collision warning. For instance, the app calculates the path taken by a car and a bicycle. If they are likely to cross paths at the same time, the system warns both road users in real time via the mobile network.
“The collision warning system gives cyclists, pedelec and scooter riders, and pedestrians a digital guardian angel. The key to this is the extensive networking: About 85 percent of the population in Europe uses a smartphone. And cars are also becoming increasingly connected. We also ensure extremely rapid response times with our computers in the mobile network.”
Oliver Bahns, in charge of Connected Mobility at T-Systems
The Digital Guardian Angel not only helps to make cycling in the city safer, but also more attractive. And that was the deciding factor for the jury. After all, the solution supports two goals that the United Nations has set for sustainable development. To improve safety in inner-city traffic and to create further incentives for sustainable, urban mobility.
The collision warning system relies on satellite positioning, acceleration sensors, mobile communications, and edge cloud computing. Edge cloud computing is a cloud infrastructure that is integrated into the mobile network and spatially distributed, bringing computing power closer to the user. This saves time in an emergency. The car transmits its position and acceleration data to the nearest edge cloud computer. The cyclist also sends the same information to the edge cloud via their mobile phone. The system then calculates the paths for the next five seconds and sends a warning to both road users if a collision is imminent.
