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In the autumn, SAFER has conducted a pre-study to increase collaboration and traffic safety research with India. The project has now generated results and a Sweden-India Transport Innovation & Safety Platform (SITIS) has been established.

SITIS vision is “to leverage the know-how of India and Sweden to accelerate progress and deployment of safe & sustainable transport solutions and actionable policies, contributing to significant progress of Indian transport system”. The ambition is also to create a partnership that fosters innovation, develops competence and assets that creates the capacity to address complex challenges and make a significant impact. The collaboration aims to become a prominent platform for applied research and innovation in the area of safe & sustainable transport.

John-Fredrik Grönvall, responsible for SAFER’s Naturalistic driving data & FOT, tells more about the new collaboration:

“The benefits of strategic cooperation of this kind are numerous, and the collection of traffic safety information is valuable. Accident types and road user behavior differ in different parts of the world. The more we can understand about real traffic as we develop safe traffic system of the future, the more lives we can probably save. In addition, India is a country with fast pace of development and high capacity to develop technologies, concepts and solutions. India has also built a strong foundation in the IT / Data Science sector”.

First project started
SITIS has already embarked upon its first project which will now be the first example of a concrete bilateral collaboration between India and Sweden; “Safe and Secure Transport corridors in India”.

The pilot project entails a long-distance coach over a corridor in customer service. The aim is that we will target the top safety issues with regard to the driver, the vehicle, the passengers, the driver, the infrastructure, or the circumstances like other traffic, weather, road conditions etc. The aim is to use the capabilities across the stakeholders. Example of the work could be data analysis of traffic behaviour, weather conditions, driver behaviour, overall logistics, deploying connectivity solutions for critical moments, emergency response systems and the ability to communicate with the infrastructure. Eventually we want to use this pilot project to carry out applied research that could deliver possible solutions that makes the given corridor safe. This first project will bring the project members all together and establish working methods and approach to future projects.

Cut fatalities by half
The WHO estimates more than 150 000 people are killed on the roads in India every year. India’s ambition is to cut fatalities by half in the next 10 years. The partnership has a unique ability to leverage the potential of big data, AI and deep learning in a transport system context and create broad and scalable safety data analytics assets, as well as establish testbeds and capacity to develop, test and deploy safety solutions. The platform will place high focus on smart and affordable safe and secure connectivity solutions by deploying the latest technologies in connectivity and co-operative and intelligent transport systems.

SAFER’s partners contribute with knowledge
Members of this platform are companies and institutes who lead in the safety area in their respective domains. SAFER partners include Autoliv, Volvo Group Chalmers University of Technology, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). The platform will also engage the Vision Zero Academy at the Swedish Transport Administration. Other partners are
Ericsson, Manipal Hospitals, Altair, Saab, Tech Mahindra and, as well as universities and research institutes; India Institute of Science (IISc), Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (TRIPP, IITD) and the technical authorities ARAI and the government organisation Niti Aayog.