Pub. 2 2019-2020 Issue 2

37 sensors in the form of embedded fiber-optic cables were to cover the road. The slabs were to be built by Integrated Roadways, a company headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. According to CEO Tim Sylvester: • The concrete knows when someone drives off the road and can send an automatic alert to emergency services. • The concrete can give real-time alerts about road hazards and traffic alerts to drivers’cellphones without requiring the drivers to provide any information first. Two issues with the new technology involve reliability and cost. AccordingtoProfessorCharlesSchwartz,whoteaches civil andenvi- ronmental engineeringat theUniversity ofMaryland, remote rural areas have higher than average accident rates. That means smart roads would provide a real benefit. What he wonders, however, is what happens if a cable breaks within a concrete panel. Cost is also a significant factor because the smart roads Integrated Roadways is building cost twice as much as a conventional road. Nobody is going to want to build these roads on a large scale unless they offer significant benefits. Theymight do just that. Improved safety is one obvious benefit, but it doesn’t stop there. As Tim Sylvester points out, the data being collected by the roads is valuable and could be sold to offset the construction costs. Howwould that work? Data, even anonymous data (which this would be) is always valuable. • Choosing a location is always important when building any- thing. Smart roads can tell potential builders about the traffic in a particular location so they can make informed choices. • Knowingwhen a road has been damaged allows decisionmakers to choose the least-expensive time to fix the damage, as opposed to waiting until the repairs cannot wait any longer. • If someone is missing, being able to identify where cars have gone off the road might make it possible to find that person faster and give them help sooner. • Preventing accidents is an ambitious goal, but the combination of smart roads and autonomous cards may get us there faster. • Electricity and broadband are both valuable commodities in their own right. Smart roads may end up being themost economical big purchase any department of transportation can make. 3 Cost is also a significant factor because the smart roads Integrated Roadways is building cost twice as much as a conventional road. Nobody is going to want to build these roads on a large scale unless they offer significant benefits.