Cars at the service of electricity infrastructures

Electric cars. Futuristic cars, self-driving cars that don’t need a human driver.
The evolutions and innovations in the automobile and smart mobility sector never cease to amaze.
What if these increasingly more intelligent cars were able to do also other things, such as mapping the places they drive through? Google Street View cars, with which the Cupertino giant creates the 360° photos of its maps, are the most famous. But they are not the only ones.

In Italy, at Acea we are one of the first companies to use Artificial Intelligence systems to drive our cars.

Andrea Fratini, Innovation team Acea

“It’s an experimental project in partnership with Mobileye, world leader in the development of advanced safety and assisted driving systems, and ESRI” continues Andrea. 

The experimental project of Acea with Mobileye

The experimental project is aimed at collecting data about static infrastructures – such as electricity poles, lamp posts, traffic signals – as well as dynamic information – for example, available parking spaces – allowing us to develop high-definition maps to be used to offer Smart City & Smart Mobility services.
“We had collaborated with Mobileye in the past, when we installed their safety and assisted driving devices on the cars used by Acea Ato 2 operators” continues Andrea. “Following the very positive response we got from our people, and faced with the opportunity to use an even more advanced technology, we immediately started looking at the feasibility of this new project.”

As part of the experiment, Acea cars will be equipped with the Mobileye 8 Connect device, which in addition to increasing safety behind the wheel, allows to collect data thanks to the use of computer vision and machine learning technologies.

“Every day our operators drive around Rome and intervene where required” adds Delio Svaluto Moreolo, Responsabile dei progetti innovativi in ambito Smart City in Areti. “Thanks to Mobileye, without asking our operators to do anything extra, we can transform our cars in proper scanners that map our infrastructures located across the territory and collect data on their status and operations.

The numbers of the Mobileye experimental project

50
cars
6
month trial period

Highlights

Discover the latest news and initiatives of the Acea Group