The European Commission, with the support of the GSA, has launched a new project using EGNOS, the European satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS), with the aim of developing a tailored integrity concept for payment and liability critical applications in the road sector such as road tolling or pay-as-you-drive insurance in the 2025-2035 timeframe.
The study, requested by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence, Industry and Space (DG-DEFIS), will be delivered under the technical supervision of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) and will be validated by users from the road sectors. The study will allow the identification of user and service requirements, the development of an appropriate integrity concept and the definition of a service provision scheme. As part of the user level integrity concept the consortium will develop algorithms to cope with the local environment (e.g. multipath) of the road sector.
Integrity assurance
When defining the service, the project will assess the extent to which evolutions of the current EGNOS services, user equipment or the service provision scheme are needed to provide the required integrity assurance. Integrity in this context refers to the level of confidence or reliability of the user solution including positioning, navigation or timing.
The On-Board Unit (OBU) will have to include all the features necessary to trust the position in situations where enforcement, payments and related claims are involved. Since the EGNSS sensor may just be one component in the OBU, the project will identify what other technologies or components may be needed in addition to the current EGNSS signals, and what would be the minimum contribution of each element, and under which conditions, to the overall integrity assurance.
The study is being fully financed by the European Commission under the H2020 framework programme for research and innovation, within the budget allocated to the evolution of the EGNOS mission. The GSA is in charge of technical supervision of the project on behalf of the European Commission.
Tailored premiums
Pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) and pay-how-you-drive (PHYD) insurance are emerging applications in the road sector that rely on where, when, how and how much the road user drives. These applications make it possible to tailor the premiums paid by the policyholder.
In the future, other road applications such as reconstruction of accidents, mobility as a service, traffic infraction monitoring and fine management, traffic congestion monitoring, automatic charging in car parks, etc. may also rely on the vehicle’s position and navigation data.
Liability and payment-critical applications are highly sensitive to undetected large navigation errors since significant legal or economic consequences for the service or application provider may occur. In fact, a mismatch of the vehicle’s current speed together with erroneous position data may impact the user charging associated with the driving paths, skills and habits of the road user. Afterwards, it becomes very difficult for end users to claim that they are being overcharged or for service providers to avoid undercharging their customers.
About EGNOS
EGNOS is the European SBAS and augments the GPS L1 C/A civilian signal by providing corrections and integrity information for positioning and navigation applications over Europe. EGNOS Version 3, set to enter in service in the near future, will augment both GPS and Galileo constellations in the L1 and L5 bands and will extend the service area to the entire landmass of EU Member States.