The range of applications for IV systems is quite broad and applies to all types of road vehicles cars, heavy trucks, and transit buses. While there is some overlap between the functions, and the underlying technology can in some cases support many functions at once, IV applications can generally be classified into four categories: convenience, safety, productivity, and traffic assist.

The following sections describe applications in these areas along with basic information regarding products and supporting technologies to provide context. More in-depth information is provided in subsequent chapters.

IV applications can be implemented via autonomous or cooperative systems. Autonomous systems rely upon onboard sensors to provide raw data for a particular application, whereas cooperative systems augment onboard sensor data with information flowing to the vehicle from an outside source. Using wireless communications techniques, this data can be derived from infrastructure sensors or via information sharing with other vehicles. Data from other vehicles can be received either directly through vehicle-vehicle communications or through an innovative technique called floating car data (FCD) or probe data. The FCD concept (further discussed in Chapter 11) relies upon vehicles reporting basic information relevant to traffic, road, and weather conditions to a central data center, which is aggregated and processed to develop a highly accurate picture of conditions across the road network and then disseminated back to vehicles.

In the discussion below, the reader will gain an applications-level understanding of how both autonomous and cooperative techniques can be employed.