Waycare Leverages Data from Connected Vehicles to Provide Cost-Effective Safety Insights for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Waycare is consuming real-time, anonymous connected vehicle (CV) data from thousands of cars, initiating one of the largest deployments of CV data integration in the US. The first deployment is under way, taking place through a program with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC). As a result, RTC is accessing new insights into road safety, congestion management, and intersection performance at a fraction of the cost traditionally experienced.

How it Works:            
Today's vehicles are equipped with dozens of sensors, collecting information about internal systems, external hazards, and driving behaviors. Waycare has brokered partnerships with several smart mobility firms to harness CV information such as driving behavior, location, and speed. Key partners involved in the ongoing project include:

Nexar: Vision-powered road data
Geotab: Transportation insights and analytics
wejo: Connected car marketplace
Waze: Community-based traffic and navigation platform

Data is anonymized and scrubbed of all personally identifiable information prior to processing through Waycare's AI-driven proprietary algorithms. This information is used to train the computer models with contextual driving behavior allowing the system to recognize certain driving anomalies like harsh braking and swerving.

New Forms of Safety Insights:
The Waycare platform identifies and alerts RTC's Traffic Management Center (TMC) of potential hazardous situations, giving operators greater visibility to investigate causes and respond faster to incidents. Furthermore, users are receiving increased data on traffic congestion at intersections and on arterial roadways, unlocking new information such as wait times, average speeds, and traffic stopping patterns. The new insights provide RTC with a wider variety of preventative actions to mitigate risks in an effort to reduce congestion and crashes in these targeted locations.

Public Benefits:
Smarter use of taxpayer dollars - CV data alleviates the need for costly infrastructure investments that are associated with hardware and device installation which also include maintenance and upkeep.
Community-driven approach to improving safety in the SoNV community
CV data to help unlock insights about traffic safety to help prevent crashes before they occur

"We feel that the public will benefit from this program because we are going beyond the infrastructure the sensor data that we have in place now," comments David Swallow, Deputy CEO of RTC, "We are using connected vehicle data to get insights into the things that we care about most: safety, the operation of the traffic signal system, and our transit system."

Why it's Cost-Effective:
Infrastructure hardware, such as CCTV and traffic sensors, are costly for cities to maintain and repair. However, just by driving around, connected vehicles can collect terabytes of valuable traffic data at a fraction of the cost. CV data can supplement existing city infrastructure, providing greater visibility of the roads, even in the more rural zones.

"Through our partnerships, Waycare is helping Southern Nevada improve congestion and traffic safety on their roads" says Waycare CEO Noam Maital, "Over the next few years almost 90% of vehicles will have some form of connectivity, enabling new capabilities for transportation agencies. Waycare is excited to work closely with RTC to leverage this influx of data to turn it into actionable results to improve the quality of life for the Southern Nevada residents."

About Waycare
Waycare is a cloud-based SaaS platform harnessing data from sources such as GPS navigation apps, connected vehicles, and infrastructure to provide actionable insights which improve traffic and safety management operations. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Waycare provides predictive insights to identify dangerous roads where future crashes are likely to occur, empowering proactive decision-making. Waycare is shaping the future of urban mobility, enabling cities to take full control of their roads and directly communicate with other departments and vehicles throughout their transportation networks.

About the RTC
The RTC is the transit authority, transportation planning organization, regional traffic management agency and administrator of Southern Nevada Strong, the regional planning effort for the Las Vegas valley. The RTC's vision is to provide a safe, convenient and effective regional transportation system that enhances mobility and air quality for citizens and visitors. The RTC encourages residents and visitors to use a variety of transportation choices to help reduce traffic congestion, clean the air and improve the quality of life in Southern Nevada. For more information about the RTC and its major initiatives or to download its transit app rideRTC, visit rtcsnv.com and stay informed by subscribing to our blog.

Contact Information | Waycare
Maria Kolar
Marketing Manager
[email protected]

Contact Information | RTC of Southern Nevada
Sue Christiansen
Government Affairs/Media Relations & Marketing
[email protected]

SOURCE Waycare