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2 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities Introduction 3

lier work: to bring to the attention of transportation professionals the existence
of powerful possibilities for realizing the value of data in terms of safety, effi-
ciency, and enhanced user experience.
Much of the book’s content is derived from a series of consulting engage-
ments conducted by my company on behalf of Teradata, Inc. Teradata is the
leader in big data and analytics in multiple markets including airlines, banking,
and retail. The consulting engagements were designed to support the introduc-
tion of this experience and expertise into the worlds of intelligent transporta-
tion systems and smart cities. These assignments afforded a unique opportunity
to explore and define the boundary between transportation and data science,
in cooperation with leading big data and analytics experts and in coordination
with transportation clients.
This book appears as we experience the convergence of rapidly rising data
science capabilities and the growing availability of a wide range of transporta-
tion data. In fact, there is probably more data available regarding transportation
infrastructure and operations than at any time in the history of transportation.
Initiatives for smart cities, connected vehicles, and autonomous vehicles prom-
ise to add even more volume to the data already available from infrastructure-
based sensors.
Smart cities is an umbrella term that has been widely adopted to address
the application of advanced technologies to enhance service delivery and to
improve the lives of both citizens of and visitors to cities. According to the
United Nations, more people now live in cities than in rural areas [1], raising
the importance of smart cities. The connected vehicle delivers a two-way com-
munication ability between the vehicle and the back office. This book uses the
term back office to refer to an off-road processing or management center that
receives data from vehicles and roadside infrastructure and subjects it to data
processing that will convert it into information, insight, and understanding.
The term back office is not typically used in transportation; however, the book
describes several different processing and management centers, and it is use-
ful to have a single general term. The two-way communication capability of a
connected vehicle also enables vehicles to communicate with each other, offer-
ing some significant safety improvements through the avoidance of potential
crashes. The vehicle-to-back office connectivity also allows for the extraction
of a large volume of data from vehicles and the delivery of information to driv-
ers. Autonomous or self-driving vehicles make possible private cars that relieve
drivers of the burden of driving and freight vehicles and transit vehicles that no
longer require a driver. These autonomous vehicle developments require signifi-
cant amounts of data for management and control purposes; at the same time,
these advanced vehicles will generate substantial amounts of data.
Private sources of data have also emerged in recent years adding to the
extreme volume of data that is now accessible to transportation professionals