ITS World Congress 2019, themed with “Smart Mobility, Empowering Cities”, attracted more than 14,500 participants from 100 countries. Entries from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and the Americas competed for the Industry Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, and Local Government Award at ITS World Congress. The Industry Award honors practical applications of transportation technologies in industries. Past winners include the West Japan Railway Company, Taiwan HSR, and Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection.

ITRI Chairman Dr. Chih-Kung Lee attended the award ceremony to collect the award. He remarked that Taiwan government is working to set up major policies for smart transportation and expressed thanks to the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the R&D funding and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for the deployment funding. Lee further indicated that ITRI's autonomous vehicles and vehicular communication technology are implementing their applications. For example, its autonomous vehicles are already running test drives in Taichung and Hsinchu. This year's award-winning V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) technology iRoadSafe has also been industrialized and applied in eight cities in Taiwan. In the future, industries, the public sector, and R&D agencies in Taiwan will continue to collaborate and bring Taiwan's smart transportation industry onto the international stage.

Dr. Tzi-Cker Chiueh, ITRI’s Vice President and General Director of Information and Communications Research Laboratories, pointed out that the main reason why ITRI stood out and was awarded the Industry Awards is because iRoadSafe can greatly improve traffic conditions in the Asia-Pacific region. Traffic environments in this area are usually crowded and disorganized. The roads are shared between an array of transportation modes, such as cars, motorcycles, and bicycles, and these conditions can easily lead to safety concerns at busy crossroads with complex traffic signals. ITRI’s iRoadSafe offers a smart V2X road safety solution especially designed to handle the busy and complex traffic environments in Asia-Pacific region.

Chiueh further explained that iRoadSafe integrates data from communications, sensors, traffic signals and other equipment to predict possible tracks through anti-collision algorithms on the distance between people, vehicles, and objects. The system then uses roadside units (RSUs) to broadcast alerts to all road users via on-board units (OBUs) and changeable message signs (CMS). Currently the technology is already deployed at 26 high-risk crossroads in cities including Keelung, New Taipei, Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Nantou, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. The technology has also been transferred to telematics companies such as THI Consultants Inc. and Forward Electronics Co.