Slovenia and HERE partner to improve highway safety

Ljubljana, Slovenia and Amsterdam, the Netherlands - DARS, the company that manages Slovenia's extensive network of motorways, is working with HERE Technologies to deliver an advanced safety messaging service for road users.

Under an agreement signed by DARS and HERE ahead of this week's ITS World Congress in Montreal, DARS will leverage the HERE Open Location Platform to deliver safety-critical alerts to drivers, warning them of, for example, a slow or stationary vehicle, sudden traffic build-up, road works or adverse weather.

Slovenia, a country that links the North Adriatic region with the Alps and Eastern Europe, is one of Europe's major transportation corridors, with a high density of motorways. Safety has been high on DARS agenda, and the company now offers a smartphone app, DarsTraffic+, through which road users can stay up to date on conditions on the road.

As a result of the cooperation, the app will now run on the HERE platform, with HERE handling the ingestion, analysis, and distribution of accurate and localized safety information to impacted drivers on the road as well as DARS' Traffic Information Centre, located just outside Ljubljana. While the solution utilizes smartphones, the same architecture will in future also be able to support real-time communication among vehicles themselves, without the need for smartphones.

The deployment is part of the C-ROADS project, which serves as a cooperative framework for European Union member states to deploy C-ITS (Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems) projects that ensure cross-border interoperability for all road users. REALIS, a Slovenia-based specialist in ITS technologies, is supporting HERE and DARS with the implementation.

"This initiative provides a cost-efficient way of delivering real-time safety-critical information to drivers," said Mika Rytkönen, Director, Solutions EMEA at HERE Technologies. "It requires no major investments, and instead takes advantage of modern location technology and Slovenia's excellent mobile network infrastructure. We believe that C-ITS initiatives like this will be vital for Europe's transport infrastructure as they rely on technologies that are proven, work across borders, and are easy for people to use."

"Slovenia is a strong supporter of efforts to implement Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems and autonomous driving as the vision of the mobile future," said Mr. Dean Herenda, Head of Slovenia's National Traffic Management Center. "Projects that are part of the C-Roads Slovenia initiative can play a key role in facilitating investments and moving us towards the goal of transportation that's cleaner and safer. We believe HERE is the right partner to help us greatly increase the safety and flow of vehicle traffic on the most crucial sections of Slovenian motorways as early as the pilot implementation stage."

HERE serves as a key partner to road transport agencies, smart cities and the broader public sector, helping them make decisions that improve the quality of life for citizens.