WeatherCloud is a company that is dedicated to creating the next generation of the connected car, crowd-sourcing weather data at street level to create a safer and more efficient transportation grid for the US and, ultimately, the world. WeatherCloud collects weather data by attaching sensors to vehicles. The data that is compiled will produce actionable weather data and forecasts for virtually all 4 million miles of roads in the US. The team has developed a proprietary sensor array that continuously transmits weather information to the cloud.
WeatherCloud has created three sensors that are attached to cars. One on a lug nut, one on the windshield, and one on the bumper. The windshield sensor pack harvests energy from the sun and stores it in a small energy cell battery to measure precipitation rate and type, and ambient lighting conditions. The bumper sensor pack is attached to the license plate frame and measures dew point, ambient temperature, pavement temperature, and road conditions such as wet, icy, or snow-packed and is programmed to determine crosswinds. The tire sensor pack generates electricity from the angular accelerations of the tire. This sensor measures the slip/grip of the tires to calculate the coefficient of friction.
To gather all of the data there is a smart hub device. The smart hub calculates all of the data and pushes it to the cloud where it is combined with other data. The resulting enhanced data is called Ground Truth (GT) and it is sent back to drivers’ cell phones or navigation screens as audio-visual alerts, or can be accessed through the WeatherCloud desktop application.
New companies are starting to collect user data for weather and conditions to create more accurate weather data. These products are enhancing the weather data and allowing individuals to get involved.
Written by Elise Mazur, 8/20/2015