Connected and Automated Driving in Snowy and Icy Conditions—Results of Four Field-Testing Activities Carried Out in Finland

Automated driving expected benefits, such as enhanced traffic safety, are only fully realized in the future when the vehicles are able to maneuver in all weather conditions. Finnish transport agencies and EU CEF-funded projects aim to study automated driving in icy and snowy conditions. The four studies on digital and physical infrastructures to support automated driving included post and poles, Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) hybrid communication, accurate positioning of vehicles, and vehicle remote control using cellular communication. The results present a prototype of passive radar reflector, a C-ITS hybrid communication solution, and a reliable positioning system for an automated vehicle in Arctic north extreme weather conditions. During the tests, ITS-G5 provided more stable Infrastructure to Vehicle (I2V) communication than commercial 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) but had more limited geographic coverage.