The potential impact of upcoming severe weather on traffic and its communication through navigation systems

Current navigation systems include floating car data and observed historic traffic flow patterns in their route optimization algorithms. Adding information on predicted severe weather events to the optimization process has benefits but raises the question how to communicate resulting route changes to the driver, given the inherent inaccuracy of weather predictions. In this contribution, we summarize the observed impact of different weather conditions on driving speed, propose alternative ways to communicate route changes due to predicted changes in weather conditions, and outline future research to assess how these communication alternatives are perceived by motorists.