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SOCRATES stands for “System of Cellular RAdio for Traffic Efficiency and Safety”. This paper provides an update on what many consider to be the technology with the greatest potential for successfully achieving the realisation of an Integrated Road Transport Environment (IRTE). SOCRATES is a complete system: developments within the SOCRATES projects include applications, in-vehicle equipment, information centres and system architecture, as well as communications. However, one of the key areas within the SOCRATES research concerns the potential future communications system and this paper will cover this area in particular. DRIVE Central Office has given the responsibility to the SOCRATES Kernel project to investigate how applications and communications bearers (particularly mobile) may be integrated in an efficient and standardised way.

The paper assesses the effectiveness of the European approach to testing Advanced Road Transport Telematics (ATT, or IVHS in the US) systems within the urban field trials of the European “DRIVE” programme of research and development. It reviews progress in the major urban pilot projects, or “Euro-Projects”, and anticipates future achievements building on the results of the projects. It reviews the currently competing technologies and provides an update on their evolution. It discusses in-vehicle systems in particular and concludes that the widespread commercially availability of driver information and navigation systems could follow soon after the completion of the current projects. The main objective of the European Commission's current DRIVE programme of Advanced Road Transport Telematics (ATT) is to validate results from DRIVE 1 projects by means of field trials, or pilot projects. There is a strong emphasis on the integration of ATT applications within pilot projects.

SOCRATES is the largest project in the European Communities' research programme DRIVE. The objective is to investigate the use and feasibility of a Road Transport Informatics (RTI) system based on cellular radio, and to make recommendations which could lead to the use of a pan-European cellular radio system such as GSM as the basis of the DRIVE “Integrated Road Transport Environment” (IRTE). The overall concept is based on the collection, storage and processing of road traffic information within traffic control centres, and on the two-way information flow between vehicles and roadside infrastructure: firstly to send information to drivers and their in-car units, secondly to collect real-time traffic data and other messages from the vehicles. The paper presents an overview of the SOCRATES concept and its results and conclusions to date, including the implementation of the major test site in Gothenburg.

The DRIVE project TARDIS (Traffic And Roads - DRIVE Integrated Systems) has as its main objective the specification of functional requirements of an Integrated Road Transport Environment (IRTE), in order to provide a common framework for technical developments in which the different system operating philosophies in different countries can still be embodied. A framework has been developed for assessing various communication system architectures into which the following RTI/IVHS applications can be integrated: dynamic route guidance advanced traffic control parking management and information public transport management and information fleet management tourist information automatic debiting. Within this framework a simulation model has been developed which allows the analysis of the communications infrastructure necessary to support a particular scenario for integration.