Date: 25/06/2009

NXP and IBM testing a road user charging system to decongest the road traffic

The employees of IBM and NXP Semiconductor are driving in the streets of Eindhoven, Netherlands with a board fixed in their car telling them what economical route to take to avoid traffic congestion and save road use charges.

The new system jointly developed by involving IBM's system expertise and NXP's semiconductor and hardware design expertise, assigns a fee based on road type, time period and the environmental characteristics of the routes driven. This information is displayed to motorists in a clear and easy to understand way. The trial run is set up in close consultation with the regional government.

The On Board Unit, developed by NXP in collaboration with CPS Europe, contains the NXP ATOP chip. This chip holds a GPS receiver, using the mobile GPRS network, it continually feeds the car's location to an IBM system that calculates the route and cost data using an advanced back-office system. IBM relied on its worldwide experience in Road User Charging and Smart Traffic Systems in developing the system.

Projects such as these add to the increasing density of semiconductor inside the car. Automotive electronics domain is getting far complex than what it was few years back. Today's car operates with the combined power of steel and silicon.