A new project that enables drivers to interact directly with local traffic management systems and receive recommendations on the best route to their destination, thus helping to reduce road congestion, has begun.

The co-operative vehicle-infrastructure systems (CVIS) hosted a live demonstration of Europe's first universal platform for vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and services last week.

For the first time in a public demonstration, CVIS was able to show two cars communicating with each other and with the road infrastructure.

The demonstration also showed high-precision positioning technology, accurate to under one meter, which will improve the accuracy of safety systems such as lane departure warning.

The technology has now been made available to manufacturers.

Paul Kompfner, CVIS project manager, said: “When communicating vehicles and infrastructure can produce and share real-time traffic and environment information, we expect to see fewer traffic accidents, lower congestion delays and costs, and reduced fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.”