C-ITS Case Study

THE CHALLENGE

Road authorities have long relied on human response chains to manage critical traffic events, a crash happens, a camera operator spots it, a controller updates signs, and drivers eventually get the message.

Too many steps. Too much latency. Too many preventable incidents in between.

The vision for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) has always been bolder: infrastructure that speaks directly to vehicles in real time, closing the loop between what the road knows and what the driver or the car itself needs to act on.

THE PROJECT

 In collaboration with the University of Melbourne, the Department of Transport Victoria, and Transport and Main Roads Queensland, Felicity deployed its PowerAID traffic sensors as the intelligence layer for a live C-ITS critical event broadcasting trial.

PowerAID sensors mounted at key intersections and corridors, detect events in real time: traffic congestion, dangerous vehicle speeds, multi-vehicle incidents.

Each detection generates a structured DENM message (Decentralised Environmental Notification Message) and pushes it through Felicity Connect to road authority systems and then onward via X2V broadcast to connected vehicles in the vicinity.

THE OUTCOME

 The trial validated an end-to-end pipeline where a PowerAID sensor can trigger a vehicle warning or an autonomous vehicle manoeuvre within near-real-time of an incident occurring. Three cause codes were demonstrated in live conditions: traffic congestion, vehicle speed hazard, and multi-vehicle accident.

This is what the next generation of road safety looks like, not a sign telling you to slow down after the fact, but the road proactively guiding your vehicle before you even see the hazard.

WHAT THIS MEANS

This project is a proof point that the infrastructure for autonomous and connected mobility doesn't have to be built from scratch. Existing PowerAID sensors, enabled with DENM broadcasting, can already talk to cars today.

As C-ITS standards roll out nationally and vehicle OEMs embed V2X receivers as standard, deployments like this become the backbone of a transport system that is measurably safer, more efficient, and ultimately more autonomous guided not by human reflex, but by the road itself.

The project also highlights that existing PowerAID networks not only reduce network load across streetlights by 40%+. They also assist to reduce network pressure across transport corridors and prevent accidents.