Editing Floating car data (section)

{{Short description|Speed data collected by vehicles}}

'''Floating car data''' ('''FCD''') in [[Traffic engineering (transportation)|traffic engineering]] and [[Road traffic control|management]] is typically timestamped geo-localization and speed data directly collected by moving vehicles, in contrast to traditional traffic data collected at a fixed location by a stationary device or observer. In a physical interpretation context, FCD provides a [[Continuum mechanics#Lagrangian description|Lagrangian]] description of the vehicle movements whereas stationary devices provide an [[Continuum mechanics#Eulerian description|Eulerian]] description. The participating vehicle acts itself consequently as a moving sensor using an onboard [[GPS receiver]] or cellular phone. The most common and widespread use of FCD is to determine the [[traffic speed]] on the [[road network]]. Based on these data, [[traffic congestion]] can be identified, travel times can be calculated, and [[traffic report]]s can be rapidly generated. In contrast to stationary devices such as [[traffic camera]]s, [[number plate recognition]] systems, and [[induction loop]]s embedded in the roadway, no additional hardware on the road network is necessary.