The inter-connected automotive age means Big Brother is not only watching you drive, but should also be paying you for the privilege.
That is the view of leading global intelligent transport systems (ITS) expert Richard Harris, who says drivers should be paid for the data that is collected from their vehicles.
“I think people are becoming more and more aware they are contributing to that pool of (traffic) knowledge,” said the Briton. “My view is the data doesn’t belong to the motor manufacturers, it doesn’t belong to the communications companies, and it doesn’t belong to the service providers.
“It belongs to the people who are driving.
“So I think they should get a payment … because we need people to accept this technology, otherwise it’s not going to give the value to the community we would want it to deliver.”
Before you get excited by this concept and start planning your fortune based on endless freeway laps, be aware Harris is talking about micro-payments (fractions of a cent per time) in exchange for information such as traffic speeds and road and weather conditions.
And while modern cars now have the digital sophistication for such information to be gleaned, the infrastructure to monitor entire road systems is still years away from integration at the level Harris envisions.
But Harris, who sits on a new European Union panel working through the process of creating a unified intelligent transport system to cover western Europe, says payments to drivers is an important way to get them to engage and co-operate with data collation as vehicle-to-vehicle and then vehicle-to-infrastructure communications develop.
“There hasn’t been an open debate about the value of data,” said Harris, who is the Solution Director, International Transportation and Government, Xerox Services.
“At the moment if you sign up to an aftermarket navigation system that collects data from you and gives you dynamic information … you accept the terms and conditions and actually give away all your roadside data that the system is collecting.
“You probably don’t realise that. Who reads the terms and conditions when you sign up for the internet?”
Harris said there were examples where providing drivers with a financial incentive to provide data had proved successful. He cited a trial in Ireland he was involved in where an insurance company installed data logging devices in the cars of young male drivers and provided them with a premium discount if they promised not to speed or drive between midnight and dawn.
“Because it was related to money, most of the kids complied with the requirements; the premiums came down, the number of kids dying on the roads came down and the cost for the insurance company came down -- everybody wins.
“The only thing the kids had to do was drive how they said they would and be prepared because their movements could be tracked. Privacy is a big issue with this stuff, but the Irish example shows that if you see a benefit for you, you will accept the terms.”
Harris was speaking to motoring.com.au at the Michelin Challenge Bibendum in Chengdu, China. Dubbed a “think and action tank”, it brought together government, business, transport and safety experts for an event that was part workshop and part auto show aimed at developing sustainable transportation of goods and people.
Harris is also an ambassador for the 23rd ITS world congress in Melbourne in October 2016.
“People don’t realise how much we rely on ITS already,” he explained. “Controlling traffic; Linking up how long you stay at traffic lights; Linking up in terms of transportation; Sorting out passenger information systems; Scheduling public transport; Scheduling freight; it’s all happening already.
“What we are seeing at Michelin Bibendum is just the next stage. It’s making the vehicles more intelligent and trying to unlock the value of that intelligence.”
Harris said traffic congestion was estimated to cost the global economy $200 billion annually. The increasing availability of data meant that figure could be reduced.
“With all of our transport networks, the key thing is understanding what is happening on them,” said Harris. “With all of our connected vehicles we will be collecting information on journey times, road conditions, weather conditions, every aspect of driving.
“We will be able to make sensible decisions on how people should navigate through that, maybe even change their transport mode or delay their journey.”