Flow demonstrates FlowControl car data platform

Road operators seeking to make greater use of floating car data may want to talk to the 8243 Flow traffic intelligence agency. Flow has introduced FlowControl, claimed to be a unique software platform for incorporating floating car data with information from more traditional traffic monitoring devices.

“We have seen, of course, evolution of the traffic management market using sensors, but now there is also greater availability of floating car data – information from connected devices in vehicles,” says Flow’s chief executive officer Philip Taillieu.

“Highway operators are tending to struggle with incorporation of this new data into their existing traffic analysis and control systems. We are helping with supply of FlowControl, which is effectively ‘middleware’ based on algorithms for fusing conventional traffic information with floating car data.

FlowControl is being promoted as a single software platform for four different principal applications – parking and traffic management, ‘intelligent’ enforcement and mobility apps. The company gives a long list of specific services under these main headings that can be supported using FlowControl, including real time parking availability and traffic information and travel times.

The software can be used as a standalone platform, or as a component or module of a wider ITS system, according to Taillieu. FlowControl has been developed to open standards such as Datex or others depending on the particular country in which the software is being used.

“The key outcome, we believe, is the breaking down of walls that have built up between traffic management as a niche market, and the software of in-vehicle connected devices,” Taillieu says.