Member Article

Road Angel declares Smart Motorway Lane Closure feature open

Road Angel, is on a mission to make Smart Motorways safer by introducing its new Lane Closure visual and verbal warning feature directly into the driver’s car.

The news comes at the start of Road Safety Week (November 16th to November 22nd) and follows a year of major investment in R&D and testing by the business.

The new feature is available across all Road Angel Pure devices which thanks to a strategic partnership with Transport England are connected to the smart motorway network delivering the most vital information directly into the driver’s car without distraction.

The technology inside the Pure works out millions of calculations to provide this information, including road speed limits, location, speed of travel and any in vehicle surroundings.

Smart Motorways continue to cause controversy, with the Transport Secretary Grant Schapps recently promising to “carefully study” a critical report from the Commons transport committee. Some campaigners and MPs have even called for the roll-out to be paused until further investigations into the safety and efficacy of Smart Motorways.

‘Not all drivers fully understand the Smart Motorways and we want to bridge that gap, explains Road Angel’s Gary Digva.

‘Our customers love our Smart Motorway feature and the Lane Closure alert is the next logical and indeed critical step. It is the only product in the world that is connected to the smart motorway network.’

Road Angel Pure customers who already have a Smart motorway subscription will receive the updated software automatically.

Smart thinking - how it works:

Road Angel’s current Smart Motorway subscription monitors location, speed and the change of speed of the Smart Motorway, so if the Smart Motorway speed changes, so does the Road Angel.

The new Smart Motorway Lane Closure feature works in tandem with the existing Pure technology and subscription, warning the driver visually and verbally that there is an active lane closure ahead.

When there is an active lane closure, the Road Angel Pure gives a verbal warning and visual warning. The driver then has plenty of time to react and adjust their driving.

Road Angel believes that this, plus the lack of distraction of app-based alternatives should help save lives and make smart motorways safer.

Let’s make no bones about this, distractions kill and that includes apps that are active in the car. We believe it is time to say NO to apps that ultimately cause distractions. Remember, your phone’s primary function is to be a phone, so regardless of what app you are running, the native functions of being a phone will take precedence. Too many motorists trade safety for free apps. Of course, many companies with these free apps are worth billions of Dollars and considering they provide the service for free, how are they making so much money? Very simply, if you don’t pay for it you are the product, explains Gary Digva.

After a huge amount of testing, we now have the technology to make a crucial difference because this is something we’ve been concerned about for a long time, especially with regards Lane Closures.

Our experience has led us to see this and Smart Motorways in general terms as a major potential risk and we’ve been designing our products to mitigate it for years now. This is about making the roads as safe as possible and saving lives.

A key issue with Smart Motorways and Lane Closures is a lack of understanding combined with a level of complacency. Any debate around the safety of Smart Motorways will continue and it is an important debate to have but in the meantime, if we can help make a difference with our technology by making people more aware of the changing circumstances we will. Ultimately this technology, especially the new Lane Closure feature, can save lives.

ends

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mac Watson .