An autonomous car driving around Helsinki and Espoo helps cities solve future problems

How can cities prepare for flooded streets, harsh weather conditions, or the degradation of roads? Planning requires accurate data, collected by a self-driving car as it moves around Espoo and Helsinki. Its high-precision sensors collect vast amounts of data from the surrounding environment during every drive.  

The Aalto University Research Institute of Measuring and Modeling for the Built Environment (MeMo) is participating in the Self-driving Cars and Future Data (Big Data) project, in which researchers study the various purposes for which data collected by a self-driving car could be used. The project is led by the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI).  

'The technological transformation brought on by autonomous vehicles has many effects on society. There is no shortage of research topics when it comes to solving problems related to the design, construction, and maintenance of new roads, changes in land use, and the development of road traffic safety', says Research Director Hannu Hyyppä of MeMo.

The Big Data project studies the theme using case studies.  

‘We use an autonomous car to collect data on the environment. The collected data has many different uses. Now we are studying the type of data that can be obtained regarding the condition of roads, roadside trees, and carbon sinks in trees,’ says Professor Juha Hyyppä of FGI.

The project is partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund and co-funded by the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council.

Using data collected by self-driving cars in startups and municipalities

There are not many self-driving cars in Finland. The Autonomous Research Vehicle Observatory (ARVO), the Big Data project’s self-driving research vehicle, has been developed by researchers at FGI. Its state-of-the-art sensors observe the environment and make it a research laboratory on wheels.  

Autonomous or self-driving transport is expected to grow. In the future, this growth also offers the opportunity of having all self-driving cars collect data from the environment while driving. However, new legislation would be required to instruct companies to share the data collected by autonomous vehicles to benefit society.  

‘Cities could use the data collected by self-driving vehicles to meet their various needs. To succeed in this, cities must be able to take into account the format in which data are collected and how the data are processed,’ says Juha Hyyppä.  

Researchers at FGI help municipalities with the basics of autonomous vehicle data so that they can make the most of it. The geospatial data collected by self-driving cars also offer opportunities for startups. Companies are assisted by the Location Innovation Hub, an EU project that guides companies in the development of business based on geospatial data.

Self-driving Cars and Future Data (Big Data) is a joint project of FGI and Aalto University carried out with support provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The project is co-funded by the Helsinki–Uusimaa Regional Council.