Thanks Lewis. You have robbed me of hours of my life. As an electronics geek working in the fire and security industry I do have an interest in radio too, but your channel is the most interesting channel I have come across in ages. For someone with a bit of electronics knowledge, who has always wanted to expand their knowledge of radio, your channel has become the most popular thing on my TV screen. Keep up the good work, there's some great content for us geeks.
@richglist2 жыл бұрын
I worked for Navtech about 15 years ago and wrote the software for their w800 radar system. This was at the time they were starting to do the trial on the M42. Very good company to work for.
@nw80002 жыл бұрын
Please tell us how to defeat it
@leehewitt95592 жыл бұрын
What language, C?…
@richglist2 жыл бұрын
@@leehewitt9559 the firmware was written in C and there was a bit of assembler for a few bits that needed to be really fast
@richglist2 жыл бұрын
@@nw8000 why would you want to defet it. They are there for your safty
@leehewitt95592 жыл бұрын
@@richglist thought so👌
@MervynPartin2 жыл бұрын
Thank you. You have answered a question for me. I now know what those devices are, having noticed them whilst travelling on the M6 & M42 last weekend. I am not reassured, however, as I find the concept of smart motorways highly disturbing and having seen convoys of HGVs hurtling down what used to be the hard shoulder, a car in difficulties having to stop there is frightening as breakdowns can happen quickly. In fact, I personally find driving on motorways to be very tense, especially with the variable speed limits being imposed for tens of miles without any sensible need- as was the case on Sunday with a 60mph limit on a clear road with light traffic (this has been the case ever since motorway warning signals were first installed- they get switched on and forgotten). That, with the constant worry of speed cameras, does not help comfortable, safe driving. I am just waiting for the next pile-up with multiple casualties before the usual response to carnage- "Lessons will be learned" and yet more speed limits.
@RobWhittlestone2 жыл бұрын
Very interesting episode Lewis. I work in ground-based air surveillance systems and your coverage of the details was really good. FMCW radar is also used in rail marshalling yards. The classic radar you showed was an ASR Airport Surveillance Radar typically with a range of 60-ish nautical miles and used to assist terminal ATC manage approaches & departures. It has a 2-D pencil beam primary radar using the lower antenna and a Mode S secondary radar utilizing an LVA (large vertical aperture) on top of the primary antenna. Fascinating stuff Lewis - keep 'em coming! Many thanks and all the best, Rob in Switzerland
@rogerblackwood88152 жыл бұрын
I was taught the long rectangular comb like radar is what we pilots call SSR, Secondary Surveillance Radar, That works with the transponder in the aircraft which is now MODE S but was previously Mode C and Mode A before that. Mode A was position only, Mode C introduced altitude encoding and Mode S is Speed, Alt and position with aircraft identifiers etc? The Lower dish type radar we call a Primary radar. The other system a friend of mine worked on was at RAF Fylingdales, which is called a phased array radar the workings of that system remain a mystery to me though, but it has a large 10 Nm HIRTA around it on the map and it looks very different to the Golf Balls we see around Croughton etc so I keep well away! I never really thought about radar being used in any other environment except Marine and aviation. We say you should learn something new every day, and I just learned something new, thanks👍 Just thinking out loud here, but is there any degradation in the system if the reflectors get contaminated with snow or rain? Or any other causes of reduced accuracy. What is the minimum number of reflectors needed for an acceptable fix? GPS needs 4 satellites at a minimum for an acceptable lock on, around 8 or 9 give much better accuracy. For aviation purposes we have WAAS which is the advanced form of DGPS, similar to the system described in this video for farmers. My thoughts on this system for road safety is not convincing. Clearly there is an issue as there have been a few deaths on UK smart motorways in situations this system seems to have been designed to prevent?
@RobWhittlestone2 жыл бұрын
@@rogerblackwood8815 Hello Roger - yes indeed the rectangular antenna is MSSR (monopulse secondary surveillance radar) - sending probably modes 3/A, C and Mode S. Modes 3/A (ident - 'squawk') and C (barometrical altitude in 100ft increments) are slowly being phased out since there is no error correction and therefore other responses overlaying the desired signals can cause garbling and Mode S has a 'lockout' mechanism designed to reduce RF pollution on the 1030/1090 MHz band. Mode S has some error correction built-in and also contains ident and barometric altitude information (but in 25ft increments). FRUIT (false replies uncorrelated in time) is the enemy of correctly decoded replies, Mode S reduces FRUIT drastically. (It's well known that Frankfurt was one of the worst locations for FRUIT with 100 000 false replies per second.) Mode S radars can also be 'clustered' - so they intelligently decide among themselves which radar shall interrogate the aircraft. Mode S is so called because it can _selectively_ interrogate individual aircraft using the unique ICAO 24-bit aircraft address. Going back to MSSR, the "monopulse" feature allows the radar to locate the azimuth of the replying aircraft very accurately by using the phase relation of the returning signal plus the information from the rotational position encoder of the antenna. This allows the radar to accurately locate the aircraft. Additionally, many Mode S aircraft transponders can 'squitter' information spontaneously using ADS-B on 1090 MHz such as the current location of the aircraft and the quality of the GPS position fix. Mode S radars have an 'All call' feature where they solicit replies from all aircraft in range to build the list of aircraft that they can then selectively interrogate. Mode S interrogators transmit an interrogator code so that the transponder knows to which interrogator it has replied. Mode S doesn't directly transmit position, but does transmit speed & heading as well as advanced features like selected altitude (if on autopilot and in a climb, for example). The whole topic of Mode S and ADS-B are too big for this forum! Phased array radars send out pulses from Tx/Rx units (elements) which are controlled very accurately. Since a phased array radar uses many of these Tx/Rx units each controlling an antenna element. The phase of each pulse from each unit can be very accurately controlled, so that when all are triggered at the same time, the beam goes out straight, or the bottom ones before the top ones, then the wavefront (therefore also beam) is directed upward and eg. right ones before left ones then the wavefront is directed left etc. These can all be combined (computer controlled). So even a non-rotating phased array primary radar antenna can scan the sky up and down and from side to side. Incidentally we say "primary" for radars that work on the echo principle - they determine "is anything there?" Then, once we know there is something there and its azimuth from the radar, we can interrogate its transponder with the "secondary" radar to determine "who is there?". This is why military secondary antennas are sometimes skewed compared to the primary antenna, so as to allow for the processing delay of the primary plot and interrogate with secondary radar only slightly later as soon as we come to the appropriate azimuth. Sorry to go on - it's a huge topic. All the best, Rob in Switzerland
@rogerblackwood88152 жыл бұрын
@@RobWhittlestone Thanks for the detailed explanation. As I said, a friend of mine was in the RAF based at Fylingdales. He called himself a scope dope, obviously his detail was watching the screens all day, he said he was primarily tasked with stuff way up in the sky, space junk etc. He tried to explain the system, but as you say it is a huge subject on its own, a bit like when people ask questions about flying, there aren't many questions with a simple answer! Even the simple one, how high are we? Well are we talking above ground, MSL or Flight Levels? I learnt to fly when ADF was still a thing published on most approaches. We had to learn the theory of the ILS systems, I think I learnt enough to pass! All that knowledge is now pretty much redundant, as are the VOR's etc, many have gone off line permanently. It would seem you are involved in the latest systems and we could probably spend many an hour in a bar discussing these things! One of my favourite memories of Primary Radar was a flight from Ostend to Stapleford, just south of Stansted in the late 90's. I was mid channel, about 60 miles out from the VOR with a solid DME readout at 5000'. Yet Kent Radar, based at Manston on the coast said they couldn't see me, even with a Squawk issued by the Belgians. That didn't give me much confidence contemplating an emergency! With the advent of Mode S the coverage is much more reliable now. How does it perform in mountainous areas, are there still dead spots, as it is still line of sight?
@alastairbarkley65722 жыл бұрын
Smart motorway? I'd prefer a proper hard shoulder, too. A few days ago my Nissan Qashqai decided to invent some bloody system fault (data mismatch, digital, accelerator pedal) and switched into rev-limited 'limp mode'. In theory, this gives you time to pull over - except, limp-mode fairly quickly morphs into 'roll to a halt mode' except, I was on a fast moving congested section of the M1 with no bloody hard shoulder. What was I meant to do? Abandon the car in lane 1 and just make a run for the banking. It was fkn scary - I eventually found a small gap in the shoulder boundary to get the car off the carriageway. And no, nothing smart came to my rescue.
@TheVicar2 жыл бұрын
Not having a hard shoulder, no matter how amazing people think technology is, is F'in mad, just so the powers above can increase flow efficiency without investing in another costly lane. Its nuts and will continue to kill people. They've obviously done a cost/life analysis. And the money came first. Also notice that a lot of barriers have been installed to your left so you cant choose to ram your dying vehicle onto a grass verge to save human life. Disgusting murderous behaviour.
@stevesmith75302 жыл бұрын
"Proper" hard shoulders are the most dangerous lane on the motorway. It is exceedingly rare to not be able to roll to a refuge area on all lane running motorways, and if you are off the carriage way, there will be no rush to your rescue, especially if you have not contacted the highways agency or police. If you are a member of a recovery organisation they will do nothing about recovering you until highways are informed and close a lane for them to work in. What you are supposed to do is move left, switch on hazard lights, exit the vehicle by the left hand doors, climb the bank and call 999 and ask for police. Ideally with the number on a nearby blue & white post. That will gain a much faster response than being off the carriageway, and thus is safer for everyone.
@alastairbarkley65722 жыл бұрын
@@stevesmith7530 I'm sure you're right Steve. Having huge trucks expanding rapidly in your mirror, hearing them slam on the anchors and swerve round me in a blast of air-horns somewhat defeated my thought processes. Several times In fact, all this wonderful digital tech needed was a reboot - switch off and start up again, and the fault temporarily clears removing the rev limiter. It did keep recurring intermittently afterwards though. And the fix? A new pedal assembly - £510 plus labour, and there isn't one in the UK atm. What was wrong with analogue cars eh?
@stevesmith75302 жыл бұрын
@@alastairbarkley6572 Well, in reverse order, the problem with analouge cars is the public learned they were not wanted. More and cleaner power from smaller engines, lots of electronic toys etc. You hit the nail on the head too, so many people do not consider what they should be doing, then any common sense they may have gets drowned in fear. Hence why thehighway code, driving tests, tv ad campaigns etc contain instructions on what to do, but so few people pay attention whilst or before driving.
@underwaterdick2 жыл бұрын
@@stevesmith7530 it truly worries me that anybody thinks that the Hard shoulder of a UK motorway is in ANY way a safe place to stop. I have met too many police officers who have attended nasty accidents on the hard shoulder. - I even used to know one officer who was sadly heavily brain damaged when his car was hit by a lorry when stopping to protect a broken down car. His partner was unable to walk for over a year too. When my friends used to pass their driving test, I would always say, "if ever you break down on the hard shoulder, get out of the car and keep well away from it... NEVER stop unless broken down." This advice paid off one day when a European Lorry clipped a friends broken down car, spinning it round a few times and shunting it into the Hard Shoulder crash barrier. Had they been sat in the car, or on the barrier, it would have been very nasty.
@JimBrodie2 жыл бұрын
Removing the hard shoulder to facilitate 'smart' functionality is a potential death sentence for anyone who breaks down when the 'system' isn't working properly. Plus quelle surpreeze, another form of surveillance for our authoritarian regime to use. I like the 'smart highway' idea in theory but in practice it's a long way off and implementers have their own agendas.
@bryanjk Жыл бұрын
Um no you're way off base... why would the system be down? The government implemented this to make things more efficient on the road. Obviously they have reliability and redundancy in mind. Get off your high horse, the government are just people and want what's best for society, obviously what this system is. I bet your the type to deny climate change, cell phones and probably believe the earth is flat! Get with the program, don't be a sheep! 🐑
@captainzapppp2 жыл бұрын
‘On certain motorway sections’ is the key phrase. Too many smart motorways have recently been opened without this equipment installed at the very start.
@rachelcarre94682 жыл бұрын
Cool video Lewis! Aviation uses a similar system to scan runways for debris to avoid the events that led to the Air France Concorde disaster. Aviation also uses the ground augmented GPS navigation system for instrument (GBAS) although it’s not in widespread use just yet.
@georgebarlowr2 жыл бұрын
I think you're referring to GNSS, GBAS is just a ground unit that gives GPS correction data in order to improve the accuracy for things like instrument approaches (it essentially sends something known as a FAS data block). However the more commonly used however now is SBAS (satellite based augmentation system) as it is more widespread requires less upfront costs (divided per use) and maintenance fees. Both GBAS and SBAS has created the RNP APCHs (Required navigation performance approaches) used now instead of traditional RNAV instrument approaches, being considerably more accurate (RNP APCHs can be up to 0.3nm accurate).
@dragster402 жыл бұрын
Great vid mate, something similar is used on some rail crossings here in the UK. It's called object detection and uses Lidar to detect people or objects on the crossing.
@davidcann60212 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the info, I noticed these are now on the M6 as well on the section between Knutsford and Crewe. I'd still rather just have a good old hard shoulder! Within seconds in rush hour a truck had ground to a halt leaving everyone to dangerously try and move into the already very busy lanes, thank god it crawled onto a slip road.
@bentleybloke2 жыл бұрын
I’m loving these videos Lewis, because I’m nosey I like to know what technology is out and about. I drive on the motorways lots and have always wondered what these white domes were. Thank you
@smorrisby2 жыл бұрын
10 seconds for the radar to detect a stopped vehicle. At 70mph an awful lot can happen in that time. I would love to meet one of the knuckleheads who came up with the idea of closing the hard shoulder.
@EportChris2 жыл бұрын
This vid is awesome mate, thank you! Seen these along that stretch of m6 between knutsford and crewe....always wondered the purpose and how they worked. Cheers, Lewis 👍🏻
@stephenjones91532 жыл бұрын
Great video once again Lewis 👏 👍 👍. Having driven along the M60 Smart Motorway 🛣 I must admit it scared me everytime 😱😳, just thinking of how many families 👪 are going to be wiped out by a truck whenever they break down. Safety refuse,s at various locations along the stretches with live hard shoulders seem a bit iffy to me considering most driver's can't even pull up in a sensible place at the side of an ordinary road let alone a high speed motorway. I think a permanent hard shoulder for an emergency is far better than non. Luckily the only 2 times I've ever had an engine blow up on me at 70mph I've always managed to dip the clutch and coast off the Motorway at the next junction pulling over in the safest place I could, the problem is some driver's who panic and instead of using the vehicles momentum and Kinetic energy just slam on there brakes and stop either in the middle of the motorway or in the most dangerous spot they can find. No Sorry Smart is more like Dumb IMHO and not for me.
@amazer7472 жыл бұрын
Agreed. Although technically interesting, the practical use on Smart Motorways is insufficient to prevent a collision, or stopped vehicle, from causing a dangerous situation. How long before human interaction can intervene and remove the danger? How many automatic overhead warning/speed restriction signage is required to cover what the radar can detect?
@freesaxon68352 жыл бұрын
Next level video 👌🏻👏🏻 well researched, and informative. Never knew any of this about our automated autostrad container system. The radar system for motorways was also very explained and detailed.
@Ibsonlovesyou2 жыл бұрын
Interestingly following on from the agricultural side of things. A lot of people are happy with the gps without a base station in the field and use a plus or minus 100mm accuracy. A modern way to get around needing a base station is RTK, which uses mobile data to help triangulate the position of the tractor more accurately and so increasing its accuracy.
@robbutterill14262 жыл бұрын
RTK is what we use for our gps kits on site because you can get around +-25mm precision on it, using a controller with a built in sim. Very handy, but expensive. I imagine these radars will be fitted with a similar system but knowing Highways England they’ll find a way to cut costs
@nottjohn94182 жыл бұрын
I'm on the motorways all the time and never knew this, I'll keep an eye out for them. I always learn something with your videos. Cheers!
@thefiestaguy88312 жыл бұрын
The enhanced GPS you talk about is actually called DGPS, D being "Differential". Basically uses a network of satellites along with fixed GPS ground based reference stations to give far greater accuracy.
@JediOfTheRepublic2 жыл бұрын
I want one of these for my house so I can replace all my motion sensor cameras. Really cool technology.
@pauljones18382 жыл бұрын
Great good video Lewis, the company that make them and the highways agency will be using this video as a training aid. Well done 👍
@Ossie12pints2 жыл бұрын
Great video Lewis and great technology. It's just a pity the people in charge of smart motorways aren't quite so observant. I drive a truck for a living and have seen stationary vehicles in the hard shoulder even though the signs are displaying the lane is open!! Smart motorways are dangerous when it comes down to human error.
@bluechang082 жыл бұрын
This is the issue with so-called Smart motorways - I was travelling on the M6 southbound 2 weeks ago and saw a car broken down in lane 1 (the driver was stood at the back of the car in the middle of the live lane) All the signs said the lanes were clear just before and just after the broken down car, but less than 2 minutes down the motorway, the operators had seen fit to slow everyone down for 'report of person in the carriageway' - we saw nothing like it in the area they'd slowed the traffic down for. For the Smart motorway network to be covered by so many CCTV cameras, It seems ridiculous that they can't use the lane control correctly. In future, I think a call to the police might be in order to ensure they know there is a broken down vehicle in a live lane as I dread to think what could happen with a non observant driver ploughing into the stationary vehicle.
@paulbell76542 жыл бұрын
Great video! I always thought these were GSM antennas for the signage and cameras and wondered why they still had so many fibre optic cabinets along the new smart motorways going in(the tall grey ones with laser warning signs on side) Keep up the interesting content
@Maeday56152 жыл бұрын
The detail In this video was stunning!
@filkey762 Жыл бұрын
Solving a problem that did not need to exist.
@spig0212 жыл бұрын
These are now on the M1 in South Yorkshire, following several fatal accidents on the so called ‘smart motorway’.
@gpm93332 жыл бұрын
Smart highways are only built for the new world order.....WEF
@tomtom854212 жыл бұрын
Great video mate. Really well researched and loads of info. Seen these on Smart Motorways and never knew how they worked.
@pichacker2 жыл бұрын
Hi Lewis... along the M25 here in Essex are a series of flat panels looking at the road. These feed information back to the HA base in Dartford and if unusually slow or stopped traffic is detected then the monitor cameras are switched to view that location. That way they are quickly informed of incidents. As you can imagine with the large number of cameras it would not be humanly possible to visually monitor all of them at once...
@bsdjunkie18052 жыл бұрын
00:47 good to see they all have hard hats on in case that container pops off the crane
@ChoppingtonOtter2 жыл бұрын
Its used to scoop your remains up with. The peak is actually used as a scraper if that happens 😆
@valentinscirsis2 жыл бұрын
Finally!!!!!!!!!!!! Somebody answered my long standing question!!!! Thank you, Lewis!!! ⭐
@onlywayisforward Жыл бұрын
Happy I found your channel I never knew about half of the stuff going on to do with radio transmission, truly eye opening. Thanks for sharing.
@thehouseholder54682 жыл бұрын
Amazing what our government spends and contrives without our knowledge, this really adds to the big brother shittte
@me-cq7wv Жыл бұрын
Very informotive video and well put together as always. I always wondered what them geezers were at the side of the road in east Oz. Now I know. Thanks for posting.
@ShaunieDale2 жыл бұрын
My first thought is how do they null out permanent objects in the field of view such as street furniture in the form of lamp posts and barriers. Presumably it compares the current view with a reference view generated with no vehicles present. I’d be interested to know if this was performed locally or at the control room.
@uzaiyaro2 жыл бұрын
I would also imagine that during setup for one of these things, one can tell the software to ignore permanent things. They may also tie in to CCTV and thus have forms of object detection and removal as well, but that’s just a guess. If it were my system and I was designing it; I would pair each sensor up with CCTV nearby/next to the sensor, and an operator could use a mouse or tablet pen to simply paint over the objects you wish to make the system ignore, or similarly that you want the system to *never* ignore, such as any object that has been detected in a breakdown bay. I would want the system to fire off a notification the second it spots something-anything-in this part of the frame. An advantage of pairing it to CCTV is that when the system does fire a notification, an operator in a control room who clicks on the notification, will also be immediately taken to a live feed of that sensor, with that camera, already zoomed in and focused on the point of which the software generated the notification for. The operator will then have the decision to reject or action that notification, and when actioned, the operator will have access to CCTV footage starting, say, 30 seconds prior to the event that triggered the software. That and as you said, simply comparing a scan that it took just now, to scans taken at previous points in time. It shouldn’t take many scans for the software to work out that a given thing is a fixed object, and thus is to be discarded on future scans. P.S. having more of a think about this, I am almost certain that to set one of these up, you will have to tell the software how many lanes your piece of road has, how wide each lane is, perhaps the direction of those lanes, and similar pieces of data, which will then give the software some idea on where it should be looking and focusing its attention on, in each of these scans. I think that once you tell the software specific information about the piece of road it is responsible for, then scanning and mapping clutter for removal is fairly simple, and can be done decently reliably without much-if any-human intervention. Although, false positives may not always be a bad thing. For a safety-critical system like this, I would personally want to err *just* on the side of caution. You don’t want one of these spitting out false positive notifications every five seconds, but maybe two or three in one eight hour shift is something I would consider to be acceptable. It’s about finding a sweet spot between being more sensitive and thus kicking out alerts for something slightly out the ordinary, but not picking up a million and one different things in each scan. Also, jeez this turned into an essay, didn’t it! Sorry to do that! But the above ideas is how I would design things if you plopped a movie trope cash-laden briefcase on my desk and demanded I build you something like this for your motorway.
@ZonkedCompanion2 жыл бұрын
It's radar so it has depth perception. It doesn't see the world in 2d like a camera does. So one would assume it simply ignores objects like lamp posts because it knows they aren't in the lanes they are either to the left or to the right of the lanes.
@233kosta2 жыл бұрын
I think it's looking for movement specifically.
@AgentOffice2 жыл бұрын
It can ignore non moving stuff after a while
@nileamish23132 жыл бұрын
Tis all big brother putting each citizen under a microscope and all about control period!
@obriets2 жыл бұрын
On an airport ramp, pilots are required to shut off the radar to avoid harming ground personnel. However, on the roads, the police have no problem radiating anyone.
@davidspencer5668 Жыл бұрын
Wow, Lewis, that is amazing, please keep these wonderful videos flowing, Merry X-mas buddy
@bradleystannard34922 жыл бұрын
Was going to send UK Highways an email asking what it was. Saved me an email!
@jmileshc2 жыл бұрын
Fascinating. GNSS & RTK Precision farming is interesting, quite a few open source projects including automated driving. Fab work, thank you.
@boilerroombob2 жыл бұрын
What a revelation...well done sir
@fukyutube22792 жыл бұрын
They can watch me all they like. The masters should know we are coming. I don't hide my disgust at their system of control.
@RobCCTV2 жыл бұрын
VERY interesting. I was once in the CCTV industry and so many companies were promoting video analytics as being the solution for such detections, but time and time again the systems would oversell the effectiveness and got shot down when any practical tests were done.
@neallewis12 жыл бұрын
Seen these on M62 and this was the information I was looking for to explain them. Cheers.
@ddegn2 жыл бұрын
The inaccuracies in GPS are not intentional. Those inaccuracies were remove years ago. Local stationary stations are still helpful in improving accuracy.
@RingwayManchester2 жыл бұрын
Ah cheers Duane! It’s always nice to learn
@dj_dazzy2 жыл бұрын
Yes SA was switched off in 2000.
@ddegn2 жыл бұрын
@@RingwayManchester "It’s always nice to learn" Which is why I'm subscribed to your channel. Thanks for all the interesting content.
@kwakamonkey2 жыл бұрын
We had to re program the software for the Handheld units we manufactured for the outdoor market.
@RingwayManchester2 жыл бұрын
Thanks so much mate
@jovetj Жыл бұрын
These types of radars can be vital around level crossings to detect blockages on the rail lines.
@SatellitePatrick2 жыл бұрын
Had noticed these on the "smart" section of the M3, guessed that was their purpose but interesting to have some details.
@nataliehilton93342 жыл бұрын
Fact: 'smart' motorways are dangerous. The chief constable of West Yorkshire said that the idea of using the hard shoulder for an extra capacity was going to cause more deaths. He's been proved right on several occasions. They need to be scrapped immediately.
@roberthorwat67472 жыл бұрын
These are now deployed on the smart sections of the M4 which became fully operational in spring 2022 between J12 and J8/9. These may have the potential to save your life (and I am sure in the majority of cases they most certainly will prove worth their investment) but still rely heavily on the human factor. Sadly a woman died on this stretch in March after her car stopped and was hit by other vehicles which highlights that the delay between detection and action remains a big concern. Even despite the red X's and speed restriction signs, while nine out of ten motorists will abide and quickly adapt, there is always one lethal suicide jockey absolutely convinced that he knows better than to heed the signs. You can always tell when the speed restrictions start on the opposite carriageway, the tell tale flashes of the safety cameras increase in frequency quite dramatically. I watch in horror all too frequently as Captain Oblivious zooms down a closed lane. More Traffic cars? More effective and hard hitting media safety campaigns? Stiffer fines and penalties? I certainly hope so.
@thefreedomguyuk2 жыл бұрын
nope. "Smart" will kill you !! just look at the stats!
@colorblind1983 Жыл бұрын
Fascinating!! I wish we could see one operate without the cover on!
@andyclark14262 жыл бұрын
Love your explanations of radio/radar equipment, I’m a electrical technician on high speed trains, we use a lot of similar equipment
@dubliner11002 жыл бұрын
Yet another fascinating and informative video. Thank you so much 👌
@niklar552 жыл бұрын
Won't be long before they are adapted to revenue collecting, like all other ''safety'' devices introduced to the road system. .
@ianstokes2912 жыл бұрын
I thought they were wifi, I have learnt something new, thanks.
@Eddiecurrent20002 жыл бұрын
I've been looking for info about these for a while! And you've answered all my questions!
@rowanjones3476 Жыл бұрын
GPS SA (Selective Availability), the deliberate degradation of the civilian GPS service, was turned off in 2000. There are still separate military and civilian signals, but the difference these days is not about accuracy, but jamming resistance. The older encrypted military ‘P’ code can be received by high end civilian receivers without decryption of it (codeless receiver ) but its principal benefit was due to it being transmitted on a different L2 frequency, facilitating measurement and removal of the measurement error term due to ionospheric delay. This made it useful for survey applications in combination with RTK differential techniques. Nowadays there are civilian L2C and aviation L5 signals broadcast in the clear negating the benefit of the L2P signal. Dual and triple frequency receivers are common now and even starting to appear in mobile phones. The military is moving to the M code. Scrambled and BOC modulated with the power shifted to the side lobes, making jamming harder. And this is just GPS. Europe, China, Japan, and India now have navigation birds in orbit. The GNSS signal and political landscape is far more complex than 30 years ago, and probably worth a video of its own. But, the crux of the issues you talk about, multipath and high dilution of precision with restricted sky views are still very real problems. The much higher number of satellites in orbit, and multiple frequency receivers certainly reduce this, but its by no means a solved problem. That said, I know google have been using 3D city models + ray-tracing as one way of reducing these error terms. But generally the solution is the use of multiple erroneous sources of truth + a stateful filter to weight their contribution to a combined solution.
@tucays12 жыл бұрын
what a waste of taxpayers money these will be obsolete in a few years when they stop selling petrol and diesel how low can these people go?
@233kosta2 жыл бұрын
Given all the cameras on those things, that radar system is the least offensive part. It can't really identify and track individuals beyond a radar signature (which may be unique to each model of car at best), but unlike a camera, it doesn't need any special software to figure out how many cars are coming past it at any one time and how fast. I'd say this is probably the only useful and actually beneficial (to the driver) bit of kit in there. The rest is just to fill the coffers.
@stumpymacgabhann2 жыл бұрын
Clear and concise, something new to dive into. Thanks for info.
@stepheneyles21982 жыл бұрын
That's great to know, I always wondered what those white pots were doing! I thought they were monitoring weather conditions due to the gap below the unit.
@hithere73822 жыл бұрын
Our newer Ford trucks (2016-2022) have a thing that calls 911 for you if it detects a crash if your phone is connected via bluetooth and it plus the APIM survive the crash.
@CallumT-te4rd2 жыл бұрын
Hey mate in the highway world where I work in we call these SVD’s (Stop Vehicle Detection)
@sil81272 жыл бұрын
If I remember rightly, as the strads were automated they all drove exactly along the same sections of the road and it was causing damage. So they had to make them drive with some variation so it didn’t do that.
@collinmc90 Жыл бұрын
interesting. I live right next to the Canadian border and have noticed things that look like this. also a LOT of trail cameras on the dirt roads around the border. wouldn't be surprised if they use a combination of camera and radar to make sure people aren't using these roads to get across the border. all there is out here is a barbed cattle fence about 3.5 feet high for miles across brush-steppe ecosystem.
@dannywaghorn71202 жыл бұрын
Seen these on the M62 on the way home from Winwick Carboot. Was wondering what they were for now I know 🤣 strange how your video was in my recommendations.
@richardrobson88642 жыл бұрын
Or we could we just have hard shoulders, too many deaths on 'Smart motorways'. 10 seconds is 8 seconds too late on the high speed motorway.
@Benzknees2 жыл бұрын
If it's so clever I wonder why speed signs keep changing from 70 to 60 to 50 to 40 & back again when there's zero obstructions. Unless it's the ever changing speed signs themselves that are causing the obstructions by causing traffic to constantly slow & speed up!
@shibasurfing Жыл бұрын
I just want to correct you one point. The US does not degrade civilian GPS and has not done so in over 20 years. Who knows about GALILEO on the other hand?
@lrdiscovictim2 жыл бұрын
"Watched by the Highways Agency's traffic officers" ? -are you having a larf?
@binky_bun2 жыл бұрын
I'd still rather have a hard shoulder. These are great for warning stuff a mile or more behind but no good for whatever is right behind you
@stevesmith75302 жыл бұрын
If it is behind you, not really a problem. Contrary to common belief, the hard shoulder is the most dangerous lane on the motorway.
@binky_bun2 жыл бұрын
@@stevesmith7530 So if you have an emergency on a motorway you're much better off stopping in a live lane than you are on a hard shoulder? I'll let you test that one. You might even win a Darwin award for your efforts. Oh it might be worth considering what happens when the power goes off or there is some other fault which is basically nothing. If those signs aren't lit then all lanes are considered open at the national speed limit no matter what might be going on up ahead. Still best of luck to you.
@stevesmith75302 жыл бұрын
@@binky_bun I work on the roads, respond to many, many incidents on them. If hard shoulders are so safe, why are the protocols for working on them exactly the same as any other lane? Cushion trucks, arrow boards, multiple well lit vehicles with high conspicuity markings etc. Given that nobody should be driving on the hard shoulder other than to stop or to rejoin the main carriageway, 12 fatalities a year for a practically zero traffic lane is horrendous, even with all the added protection frequently used. All lane running areas have both active and passive safety monitoring which regular motorway sections do not, they also have the ability to make any lanes effectively hard shoulders, even stop traffic completely that again regular motorway stretches do not. Look at the average outside lane collision, generally a few cars nose to tail with no serious injuries at middling speeds, and once the scene has stabilised itself, it is rare to have anyone else hit it, even from the higher speeds common in outer lanes. Yet the hard shoulder, well you are likely to be stationary and hit by something weighing in at 44 tonnes doing 56mph, that is not going to be pretty. As I have said elsewhere, if you break down in a live lane, follow the advice in the highway code, hazards on, exit the vehicle, and get well away from the carriageway then ring police with the number of the nearest marker post. Oddly, this is exactly the same advice as has been given for decades (pre-smart motorways) to people stopping on the hard shoulder, because it is an exceedingly dangerous place Emotionally smart motorways are dangerous, hard shoulders safer, but reality ignores what people feel, or think should be. The only danger is dumb drivers. If as many people who think they are dangerous treated them as being as dangerous as they believe they are, the collision rate would be near zero.
@binky_bun2 жыл бұрын
@@stevesmith7530 whatever you say. We didn't stop putting fire escapes in buildings when smoke detectors came along. When safety is the top priority we strive to make things safer with whatever technology becomes available. Smart motorways only exist to squeeze an extra lane in by removing a safety feature added when the motorway network was first built and trying to compensate for that with some fancy electronics that don't do anything when the power goes off. It's cost over safety and it's as simple as that. The money would have been better spent getting cars off the roads by encouraging telecommuting and improving rail freight services and public transport and communication infrastructure which would not only ease congestion and make existing roads safer but improve air quality and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The whole smart motorway idea is just totally backwards in terms of priorities. If your main priority is bigger roads on the cheap smart motorways are the answer. The technology involved is just compromising for the lack of a shoulder otherwise they would be fitting that stuff everywhere
@stevesmith75302 жыл бұрын
@@binky_bun When the first motorways were built, a 70mph crash was far more likely to be fatal. Modern car design, seatbelts, airbags, not to mention all the active features such as ABS, stability control etc make incidents more survivable. The most important safety factor by far is the nut behind the wheel. Get one that drives in an appropriate manner, at an appropriate speed, with appropriate gaps, appropriate observations and situational awareness and collision rates will plummet. Active motorways are like having a movable fire escape that can reach any floor, any window, rather than just one run up the side of a building. Smoke alarms are the warning like the gantry signs that tell you which escape is safe to use, how quickly you can safely and efficiently use it, even where the fire is so you can choose to go into a different building altogether because of a fire that may hinder you 20 miles/floors away. Smart motorways are not the problem. Dumb drivers are. If everyone drove at an appropriate speed, with an appropriate safety gap following the rules you could sunbathe nude in any lane you choose in safety, never mind break down in a 2 tonne steel box with warning lights on. The A road my driveway enters is far more dangerous by way of design and construction than any smart motorway, yet nobody makes a fuss about those rural dual carriageways with on-grade junctions that have no space to change to an appropriate speed to enter or leave the carriageway, limited sight lines, 70mph limits, no hard shoulders, often nothing at all between a car and a 100 year old tree. No regular patrols, no safety phones, no constant observation or monitoring. Stay off rural A roads I tell you, they really are dangerous for dumb drivers and all those around them. When people say "Smart motorways are dangerous" I all too often hear "I don't understand how to use roads, follow instructions or account for other idiots on the road" In other words, people who shouldn't really be on any type of roads. The facts stand, the hard shoulder is the single most dangerous lane on the motorway for the amount of traffic it does not carry. Just because you or however many others feel or do not think this should be a fact does not make it less of a fact All the safety protocols that exist for live lane working are simply copies of exactly the same protocols often much older ones for the hard shoulder. Plan for the most dangerous lane, and less dangerous lanes are even less of an issue. Done on the topic for a while. Truth is truth, like it or not.
@ligmasack90382 жыл бұрын
It's disturbing how readily the Brits are welcoming this constant monitoring by their Government.
@tim-williams2 жыл бұрын
Not much you can do about it, once your government has the means to do it it too will probably start its electronic enslavement program. Its explained in the Bible - progression toward the mark of the beast (beast is empire)... Its about, power, greed and worshiping money essentially and is foretold where it ends. Today they are even in your neurons, reading thoughts in your brain remotely and transmitting to them. Believe it or not the Bible calls it entering the temple of God (The living body)...
@NitroNuggetTV2 жыл бұрын
I feel like I'm living amongst a bunch of NPC's. Some of us are very aware but we're sadly a tiny minority.
@jammiedodger629 Жыл бұрын
Regarding the "autostrads" - they work very well until the anti collision system fails due to interference....
@samuelthorogood3878 Жыл бұрын
are you able to do anything on why GPS is made less accurate for civilian use? seems quite an interesting topic.
@Lachlant19842 жыл бұрын
In the event of a stopped car in a monitored lane, what might the road safety operators do? Close the lane, send out a breakdown vehicle? Send the police? What would they do?
@timgosling30762 жыл бұрын
The main reason the Autostrads didn’t rely on just GPS is that isn’t to do with the accuracy being reduced for civilian users. In fact this degradation has been set to zero ever since the system was completed in the early ‘90s. The problem is that even a military P code receiver is only good to 3 metres. That’s good enough to tell the Strads which road they’re on but nowhere good enough to line up a container on top of another. And of course the military can also turn on the degradation any time they like. Unfortunately, I believe the GHz radar solution for motorways isn’t quite as robust as it needs to be and one wonders how the costs of making to so balance against just putting in a hard shoulder?
@henrytwigger22452 жыл бұрын
There needs to be an additional fail safe system. They could develop the technology of a "driver" to watch where they are going and detect stopped vehicles in front of them.
@BLX1872 жыл бұрын
Good video. always saw them and wondered what theyre purpose was.
@dickJohnsonpeter Жыл бұрын
People don't understand how vast North America is and that it's hard to implement these type of things outside urban areas. Rural areas make up the vast majority of the US.
@ibubezi7685 Жыл бұрын
So, go on strike and within a few years you're replaced by a box - and we ain't seen nothing yet. Also note the ground-pods being chained to their poles - it might make a great home-intruder detector?
@DanielGlover2 жыл бұрын
I got a nice drone shot of their building in Ardington as nice village did something there and happen to get them! and they got a new manufacturing place in Grove technology park I think, Tried for a job there, did not get. Nice video. In about 20 seconds thought Navtec do, and it was.
@0liver0verson92 жыл бұрын
It would fascinating to see how the radar data is visualised. Most functions are probably automatic, but there must be a screen to view the radar field. I wonder if it looks like those old warship radar screens or something more detailed these days?
@Ayrshore2 жыл бұрын
There are videos available. Look for "Navtech Radar - ClearWay Demonstration"
@richglist2 жыл бұрын
The raw radar data did look like old fashion radar data with odd blobs and lines in a circle. But once a correctly scaled satellite map was placed below it. It was like magic. You could easily see what all the blobs were
@Mottersmotters2 жыл бұрын
Hello Lewis great video. Also wondered what they were. I see them all the time. Motters M7TRS 73 👍🏻
@greatestytcommentator2 жыл бұрын
So if they sacked every worker in the Ports of these massive cities.. Who the hell was going to buy all the lovely things in the containers..?
@____________________________.x2 жыл бұрын
This was why I subscribed, excellent video Sir. I was wondering why the M6 ones were all sitting on a base plate, but it seems it’s just a levelling fixture (because of the rotating internals) and not anything more technical in terms of RF. I guess if it can detect people sized objects then it’s going to be aware of anyone wandering around the edges of the road too.
@rjy89602 жыл бұрын
I was wondering that too :) Thanks!
@keswickadventure2 жыл бұрын
B O R I N G! I lasted until you said ‘more safer’ - I should have quit after the first 5 seconds!!!!! And
@GaryOldSkool Жыл бұрын
Very interesting video Lewis. You certainly know your stuff 👍
@Elmantukas2 жыл бұрын
I always thought what those were on m25! Thanks for explaining it such great detail!
@MartinZero2 жыл бұрын
Interesting stuff 👍
@sparkidee2 жыл бұрын
This is really informative! I never knew this about smart motorways. Great video mate
@heli-man-2 жыл бұрын
So basically Nav Tech put thousands of people out of work
@RingwayManchester2 жыл бұрын
No?
@robbutterill14262 жыл бұрын
the technology is amazing - but all technology has some hitches and over-reliance can lead to issues. But it definitely is better than the old Loop Patches which is just a fancy traffic counter. The radar on the m1, m25, m6, is now constantly monitoring the vehicles around it
@speedbird7372 жыл бұрын
brilliant thanks - I drive through the Hindhead tunnel frequently - Can you do a video on the now defunct camera system that was just to tell if traffic was heavy or not - on the A3 you can see the remnants of the green camera units attached to bridges
@FlowState.Racing Жыл бұрын
Very interesting but I dont undertand why they are placed at the sides of the road and not down the centre? Surely half of the area the radar can see is wasted on trees and fields at the side of the road or am I missing something?
@SynapticIllusion2 жыл бұрын
I wondered what they were for! Thanks! Great video!!
@WildWildWeasel Жыл бұрын
Now we gotta build jammers, radar jammers.
@russmills1412 жыл бұрын
Smart motorways are still dangerous and should never have been introduced.
@SnabbKassa2 жыл бұрын
When they can see and fine vehicles changing lanes too late to get to the sliproad, it will be be even safer.
@darreng7452 жыл бұрын
Sadly according to documents seen by the press a lot of the radar system doesn't work as well as it should as clutter from stationary objects is not filtered out, in fact the M3 went around 2 years before Highways England as it then was actually fitted it when the promises made to the then Minister at the time stated that the system would be in place and operational when the motorway was re opened after the upgrade. I know that to be correct as I almost rear ended a vehicle in a live lane by Junction 3 one night in the dark as the radar was not working or not present and the control room operators had failed to spot the broken down car in lane one, yet the PR releases reckon they can get to a broken down vehicle within 12 minutes or so of it being detected which in the trade is known as a load of complete and utter B******s!
@Ayrshore2 жыл бұрын
Watch where you're going next time. The radar not working would have nothing to do with you rear ending a vehicle.
@highpath47762 жыл бұрын
@@Ayrshore Sometimes you cannot sense movement , or lack of ,at approaching speeds. IF the radar, when working, stopped the lane as default , and operators had to clear the stop that would be better.
@RavenCodex2 ай бұрын
The auto strut knows where it is because the auto strut knows where it isnt.....
@wewillrockyou1986 Жыл бұрын
Rather surprised these don't just use a small phased array antenna, I would think the spinning antenna would be a pretty big maintenance sink... Especially when you have these places every few hundred metres