Floating car data

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Floating car data (FCD) (also known as; Floating Cellular Data) is a method to determine the traffic speed on the road network. It is based on the collection of localisation data, speed, direction of travel and time information from driving vehicles. This data is the essential source for traffic information and for most intelligent transportation systems (ITS). This means that every appropriately equipped vehicle acts as a sensor for the road network. Based on this data, traffic jams can be identified, travel times can be calculated, and traffic reports can be instantly generated.

In contrast to traffic cameras, number plate recognition systems, and sensor loops embedded in the roadway, no additional hardware on the road network is necessary.

Different types are possible:

Floating Cellular Data = cellular network data-based (CDMA, GSM, UMTS, GPRS): No special devices /hardware are necessary: every switched-on mobile phone becomes a traffic probe and is as such an anonymous source of information. The location of the mobile phone is determined using (1) triangulation or (2) the hand-over data stored by the network operator. As the localisation is less accurate than GPS based systems, lots of devices have to be tracked and complex algorithms need to be used to extract high-quality data. However, the more congestion, the more cars, the more phones and thus more probes. In metropolitan areas where traffic data is most needed the distance between antennas is lower and thus the accuracy increases. FCD based on mobile phones believe to have significant advantages over GPS-based or conventional methods such as cameras or street embedded sensors: No infrastructure or hardware is needed to be built in cars or along the road. It is much less expensive, offers more coverage of more streets, it is faster to set up (no work zones) and needs less maintenance.

GPS-based: Here a small number of cars (typically cars driving in a fleet, such as courier services and taxi drivers) are equipped with a box that contains a GPS receiver. The data is then communicated with the service provider using the regular on-board radio unit or, much more expensive than via cellular network data.

It is possible that FCD could be used as a surveillance method, although the companies deploying FCD systems give assurances that all data is anonymized in their systems, or kept sufficiently secure to prevent abuses.