TISA makes New Evaluation Kit available on GitLab

The TISA Product Committee has prepared a TPEG2 evaluation kit and published it on its GitLab server. The aim is to provide an easy entry to the basic functionalities and design principles of TPEG2 technology, hence make it accessible to a broader audience beyond the TISA membership. Potential users are organisations that have heard of TPEG and wish to explore details without implementing the whole set of ISO standards, or universities that wish to use it for training/education purposes. The evaluation kit contains the TEC and EAW applications plus TMC, GLR and a basic OLR (only geographic) location referencing. The evaluation kit is freely accessible under a BSD-3 type license together with some sample data for TEC and EAW here:

https://gitlab.tisa.org/published/evaluation-kit/

TISA would like to acknowledge the contributions from:

  • Teun Hendriks, for providing large parts of the code base and support during the implementation
  • Abel Gabor, for updating the code base to Python 3, commenting and thoroughly testing the code, as well as for packaging the kit together with installation instructions
  • Luka Krevs, for facilitating the Product Committee internal discussions and the decision-making process, as well as for preparing the GitLab server and coordinating all the work

Travelling to ITS World Congress 2022 in LA

At the recent ITS World Congress in Los Angeles more than 6,000 industry professionals from 64 countries came together to experience cutting-edge technologies, educational programming, and demonstrations showcased by industry leading organisations. The Traveller Information Services Association (TISA) was hosted by the company GEWI on their stand in the exhibition hall. The ITS World Congress 2022 gave the opportunity to TISA and Members of the Steering Board Andras Csepinszky, Teun Hendricks, to present in a variety of sessions throughout the week and to discuss with industry players the importance of developing standards for the mobility market.

‘The Congress featured a broad range of very interesting sessions and presentations, providing many opportunities for discussion. With a compact exhibition, it was easy to navigate and engage in talks at the booths. The TISA team particularly focused on demonstrations related to emergency vehicle communication, providing valuable input for the continuation of work on EVA,’ said Matthias Unbehaun, Executive Director of TISA.

On Sunday, 18 September 2022, the TISA team presented the special interest session ‘Managing Road Traffic in Cases of Large-scale Emergencies’. When disaster and emergencies strike, it is vital to deliver effective traffic management to ensure road users stay away from dangerous areas. Providing authorities with a new channel for warnings about emergencies to travellers, TPEG2-EAW is based on the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and by acting as a simple add-on for millions of TPEG2 enabled devices worldwide, provides an international standardised solution that integrates with all navigation systems and mobile phones, Matthias Unbehaun Executive Director, Teun Hendriks and Andras Csepinszky presented in the session, and as a highlight the results of field trials held Germany were showcased.

TISA members also presented in the session Connected Vehicle Technology to Improve CAV Operations held on Tuesday afternoon. Andras Csepinszky, chair of TISA’s Content and Services Committee and liaison officer to ISO TC204, presented on the advantages of TPEG over C-ITS. Teun Hendriks, Chair of Technical and Standards Committee of TISA presented Automated Vehicles: The Case for Real-time External Information presented to an audience of interested participants from industry.

 Stephanie Chaufton, TISA’s Coordinator presented in the session Dependable HD Maps for Safe Automated Driving: How Do We Get There from Here? that took place on Tuesday morning. HD maps are one of the core components for automated driving (AD). Since traffic information delivered to AD vehicles references to these HD maps, their integrity and dependability is vital for the work of TISA on highly dynamic traffic content for AD. Stephanie presented how TISA is collaborating with the other organizations of the Open Auto Drive Forum (OADF) regarding dependable HD maps. Stephanie noted ‘The collaboration with the other standardisation organizations ensures that the development of TISA standards for automated driving is well aligned with and integrated into the OADF ecosystem’.

Next meeting 6-7 December 2022. Want to be a member? Reach out to s.chaufton@tisa.org

 

Providing a warning channel in Amsterdam

Cordelia Wilson, Senior Communications Consultant recently presented TPEG2 Emergency Alerts & Warnings (EAW) at the 2022 @Common Alerting Protocol Workshop and Training on 20 September in Amsterdam on behalf of the Traveller Information Services Association. Teun Hendriks, Member of the TISA Steering Board also joined live from the ITS World Congress 2022 in Los Angeles to discuss the field trials in Germany, its technical application and the future implementation of TPEG2 (EAW).  The workshop brought together a range of global actors in the emergency sector including public authorities and industry players such as Google to discuss how to improve the dissemination of warnings in situations where it is vital to communicate with travellers.

The implementers of CAP and other associated organisations discussed the importance of a common platform such as CAP to launch messaging, but also recognised the challenges such as lack of standardisation and the varying information channels to reach those caught up in disasters.  This is where the TPEG2 Emergency Alerts and Warnings (EAW) standard comes in, which enables CAP alerts offered by CAP Alert Hubs to go directly to in-vehicle navigation systems, such as Garmin, Tom-Tom, and those offered by car manufacturers worldwide. Cordelia Wilson stated ‘This is a mature technology that is embedded in millions of devices worldwide that can effectively inform drivers and travellers so they can re-route to avoid danger.’ Teun Hendriks, joining live from the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles discussed the field trials in Germany, the technical application of the technology and the future implementation of TPEG2 (EAW), also announced the new Evaluation Kit that TISA has recently been made available.

The event was hosted by Everbridge and Alert Hub and is co-sponsored by the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the OASIS standards organization and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and gathers all interested in emergency information warnings from across the world.

 

TISA – at the heart of collaboration

TISA and its members came together in Brussels last week to discuss progress in a variety of standards related to automated driving and active mobility. In a packed programme of committee meetings, but also presentations made by external guests – it offered a real possibility to brainstorm together, make decisions with members and firm up the next steps for developing standards.

It was also an opportunity to nominate new roles in the committees that play such an important role in developing these standards. Rob van den Berg Automotive Standardisation Expert at Huawei Research Institute was nominated to chair the TPEG Application Working Group and Luka Krevs CEO of Realis was nominated as Products Committee Chair. Director Matthias Unbehaun also introduced Cordelia Wilson as the new Communications Consultant for TISA.

Beyond the confidential work of the committees, of high interest were the presentations from external guests. Stephane Dreher from ERTICO-ITS Europe presented the new FAME project, that supports the coordination of projects within the CCAM landscape, which began with CARTRE. ‘Challenges are varied in this landscape but include a lack of common vocabulary, fragmentation of research and scattered knowledge. The objective is to create a common evaluation method and a European framework for CCAM testing, as well as to avoid duplication.’ He emphasised that FAME has a new approach inspired by research and innovation rather than only coordination. Central to this is effective mapping and a knowledge base. He concluded ‘We want to be a non-stop shop for all the initiatives in the sector, to facilitate the organisation of tests, but also to ensure we compare results-sharing of lessons learnt and knowledge.’

Another guest was Timo Hoffmann from BAST who came to present NAPCORE ‘the National Access Point Coordination Organisation for Europe’. The ITS Directive 2010/40/EU and its Delegated Regulations require that each European Member State must establish a National Access Point (NAP) for mobility data. There are now more than 30 operational National Access Points in virtually all EU Member States, where mobility related data is published and made available for use in for example travel information services. Its aim? ‘To increase interoperability by further establishing standards and recommendations for data exchange formats, content, access and data availability in the mobility domain in Europe.’

All Members agreed on the importance of TISA for its role of facilitating the best long-term business case for ‘everyone in the room’ and the importance of meeting face-to-face regularly and collaboration with other like-minded organisations that play an active role in the industry.

Next meeting 6-7 December 2022. Want to be a member? Reach out to s.chaufton@tisa.org

TISA signs MOU with ERTICO-ITS Europe

Today, TISA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ERTICO -ITS Europe to further strengthen collaboration in Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) innovation and development, promotion and deployment. This strategic partnership builds on a relationship that has been established over ten years and is based on a long history of exchanging information on research, innovation and development activities.

“This memorandum marks another important step in the shared commitment of promoting open dialogue and knowledge exchange between two like-minded multi-stakeholder organisations within the ITS ecosystem. TISA plays an important role in ERTICO’s objectives and brings a valuable contribution to the smart mobility data space that is constituted by important platforms and European projects,” says Joost Vantomme, CEO of ERTICO.  “TISA will now be an independent platform, however common targets and our joint work in innovation will continue to bring our shared memberships together in the deployment of smart mobility, albeit in a new structure. We are pleased to continue this cooperation to leverage collaborative efforts in thought leadership and capacity-building, in traffic and travel information services which is of intense value to traffic safety and road users.”

“TISA is the home of standards for traffic and traveller information, given this, it is natural that we build on our past relationship and today seal our collaboration with ERTICO- ITS Europe. ERTICO brings a variety of projects and platforms to the smart mobility sector, and it is important that TISA can continue to develop these projects still further into standards for the marketplace,’ says Thomas Kusche-Knežević,  TISA President.

“TISA plays a key role in the ERTICO mobility data space for deploying innovation given its expertise in communication protocols and data exchange. The signature of today’s MoU partnership has more than a decade of comprehensive and close collaboration. We are thrilled to see the formalisation and strengthening of our cooperation,” says Dr. Johanna Tzanidaki, Chief Innovation Officer at ERTICO. “The work conducted by TISA on traffic communication protocols (TMC and TPEGs) are central to our ERTICO Partnership work in the Mobility Management Network.”

“TISA’s global membership works towards creating ISO standards applicable worldwide. We look forward to continuing a productive and innovative relationship with ERTICO and assisting our organisations to achieve their shared objectives, leading to a more standardised smart mobility sector that in turn offers safer mobility solutions for today’s users and those of the future,” says Matthias Unbehaun, Executive Director of TISA.

TISA develops and promotes open standards and policies that facilitate a timely and cost-effective deployment of TTI services and products to increase traffic safety, minimise environmental impact and improve quality by maximising interoperability worldwide.  To further support the achievement of common objectives, TISA and ERTICO will promote and jointly organise activities of shared interest following the establishment of the MoU.