Virtual Emergency Warnings via C-ITS – An Interdisciplinary Approach

Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) enable direct communication among vehicles and infrastructure. Emergency services can use C-ITS to warn road users or can be prioritized at signaled intersections. In order to provide a meaningful service, not only must standardized message formats be used, but a common understanding of all possible messages, the context in which they are used, and the expected behavior of other road users must be established. In this paper, we reflect the results of a stakeholder analysis and technological assessment in development of an emergency C-ITS service. We conducted semi-structured expert interviews with emergency drivers, compiled it by constructive technology assessment (CTA) and verified it in an assessment workshop with different stakeholders. Our work shows that a C-ITS design goes far beyond technical aspects and require a substantial analysis of human-machine interaction as well as the socioeconomic and legal context.