Smart vehicles : Météo-France teams up with Continental
In March 2016, Météo-France forged a partnership with automotive manufacturer Continental to develop a forecasting system which incorporates data from connected vehicles in real time: eHorizon Weather. For Météo-France, the aim is twofold: to improve the quality of its short-range forecasts and of its observation network by retrieving data from smart vehicles (air temperature, activation of traction control for the condition of the road surface, activation and speed of windscreen wipers for precipitation, headlights for visibility and so on) and to develop innovative services and products for road users. For Continental, this is a way to share forecasts and weather warnings with drivers based on Météo-France’s nowcasting flows via the on-board computers. Following the initial tests in 2016, a larger trial on 200 vehicles was conducted during the winter campaign. The purpose of this was to assess the quality and interest of the data collected by the vehicles and its sampling (representativeness, spatial and temporal aggregation, etc.) as well as the quality of the on-board warnings.
The second Innovation Awards competition organized by Auto Moto magazine in December 2016 singled out eHorizon Weather as a winner in the “Manufacturers” category.