How IoT is Building a Connected Road Safety Ecosystem

With roadside accident numbers rising worldwide, highway authorities and national governments are exploring new ways to protect pedestrians and drivers – including leveraging the latest in wireless and telecommunications technology.

For years, collapsible warning triangles have been a standard safety feature of new cars, designed to be erected on the roadside to alert other drivers in the event of a crash or standstill.

Those who’ve needed to actually use them before will be keenly aware of their shortcomings, from their limited visibility, instability in windy conditions, and the inherent danger of exiting a vehicle on the roadside to set them up. Something that was already a lo-fi solution at the time of its invention has now long outgrown its purpose as critical road safety equipment.

The Spanish government is aiming to change this. From January 1, 2026, all road-legal Spanish vehicles have been equipped with a V-16 connected emergency beacon instead of the traditional folding plastic triangle. The wireless beacons emit a flashing 360° light and can be activated without the driver needing to leave the car.

A V-16 beacon emits more than just light: each device contains a wireless IoT transmitter, relaying the vehicle’s pinpoint location data to the national traffic department. For road users, this makes it easier to request roadside assistance. For the Spanish government, it provides a valuable source of data for mapping road accident locations and frequencies, informing road safety measures at the governmental level.

Spain is not alone in integrating IoT tech with road safety policy. Networks of wireless devices now form the backbone of national traffic management and accident reduction strategies. From roadside lighting in smart cities to shared mobility services, connected IoT devices affect road safety at an individual, municipal, and international scale.

In this article we explore how IoT, eSIMs, and 5G data are being deployed in road safety contexts, and how IoT companies and governments can best leverage the technology.

IoT road safety in vehicles

IoT is deployed as part of a deeply interconnected web between private enterprises, local governments, and national and international bodies. The primary touchpoint for many road users is the IoT incorporated within the vehicles themselves.

In-car wireless connections are used to assist with “driver assistant systems, distance ‎sensing, detection of improper driving, active safety systems, adaptive cruise, electronic stability ‎control, lane departure warning and lane keeping”.

These innovations are typically developed by OEMs and vehicle manufacturers, often in close collaboration with IoT brands or mobile operators. T-Mobile's Car2X technology is a clear example, leveraging the T-Mobile 5G network to provide the driver with real-time information on surrounding traffic, road conditions, and roadworks, while relaying driver data to local authorities.

IoT connectivity for mobility

Self-driving cars are one of the most high-profile examples of IoT road safety in action. The autonomous vehicle industry is built on a foundation of real-time over-the-air (OTA) communication, enabled by telecoms innovations like eSIMs and 5G networks.

Concerns about the viability of these systems are growing, exposing a rift between the private sector’s desire for growth and public safety regulations. US legislators are seeking to adapt current road safety measures to accommodate the new industry and impede the Silicon Valley maxim of “move fast, break stuff”.

As one of the most visible robotaxi brands in operation, the Alphabet-owned company Waymo is the standard-bearer for automobility in the US.

Despite occasional viral videos of Waymo taxis blithely steering into oncoming traffic, panicked passengers in tow, the brand claims its taxis are statistically safer than human drivers. As robotaxi journeys are primarily low-speed, short-distance trips through grid-plan city streets, the relative safety of these services remains uncertain. Self-driving taxis are a fledgling industry, and, safety aside, are still on average slower and more expensive than regular taxis or rideshares.

Despite these concerns, Waymo passenger numbers continue to climb, while 2026 has seen the brand expand across the US and commence testing in the UK and Japan.

If autonomous mobility is to become a staple of urban life, IoT principles behind it must be watertight.

This expansion is partially facilitated by recent advances in wireless technology, and particularly the rollout of the 5G wireless standard.

Over a 5G connection, robotaxis can receive, assess, and transmit vast quantities of data in real time. Initiatives like 3GPP provide a roadmap for the ongoing adoption of 5G and 5G-Advanced standards among wireless devices, allowing for more reliable, available transmission of high data volumes at extremely low latencies, while promoting the use of satellite connectivity for even greater global coverage.

For automobility and connected vehicles, these standards are essential. Delivering state-of-the-art wireless connectivity with little to no risk of lag or dropped coverage is more than a business concern: it’s a matter of public safety. New cars sold in the EU must possess no less than 30 technological road safety features, many of them IoT-based.

Street-level connectivity mobility solutions

Even if you drive in an older, pre-IoT car, there's a good chance that the roadway you’re on is itself connected to the Internet of Things. From smart streetlights to AI-enabled speed cameras, connectivity is increasingly governing the driving experience. While IoT capabilities differ from vehicle to vehicle, connected roadways allow local and national authorities to exert a uniform level of control via networks of connected devices.

Cities are a key driver of IoT street-level cellular communication. As part of the smart city model, wireless sensors are deployed by councils to ease congestion and reduce accidents.

Barcelona operates a smart traffic light network that uses IoT sensors to provide clear pathways of green lights for emergency vehicles.

In Manchester, roadside IoT devices continually monitor traffic levels, which are in turn analyzed by an AI-assisted program to model congestion probabilities and predict bottlenecks before they occur. The information is then further transmitted to digital road signs and driver navigation systems like Google Maps to reroute individual vehicles. Initiatives like the UK Digital Roads program bring together “local highway authorities, transport operators, vehicle manufacturers and technology providers” to standardize and implement the use of IoT data collection among multiple wireless standards, SIM formats, and coverage zones.

V2X, IoT smart traffic management, and vehicle IoT connectivity

This complex, multi-stakeholder model is based on V2X (vehicle to everything) connectivity. Unlike direct communications channels, V2X encompasses all cellular communications from, to, and within a moving vehicle. This can include:

• Vehicle-to-device (V2D): In-car uses like hands-free calling or streaming music from a phone to the car stereo.

• Vehicle-to-cloud (V2C): Reporting usage data to car manufacturers or local authorities.

• Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V): Direct communication with other road users.

Doing so across several disciplines, wireless standards, and device fidelities, in real time, requires an interplay of state-of-the-art wireless connectivity services and flawless interoperability.

Managing cross-border IoT in transportation

While fatalities on rural and urban roads in the EU have steadily declined over the last decade, motorway fatality rates have barely changed.

Highways frequently straddle state and national borders, and therefore mobile operators’ coverage zones. IoT-based road safety measures must be able to operate across carrier and geographic boundaries without lag or outages.

We’ve previously explored the challenges of operating international IoT fleets. International travel can result in inconsistent signal quality, data speeds, and local regulatory requirements, as well as costly roaming fees.

Multi-IMSI technology makes it possible for IoT companies to smoothly navigate their fleets across these different environments. Multi-IMSI is an aspect of eSIMs (and some specialized SIM cards) that enables them to automatically seek and connect to the best available local network. This functionality is essential to the viability of international logistics, asset tracking, and roadside IoT usage. For connected roadways, multi-IMSI technology allows sensors to transmit data reliably, regardless of their location – and crucially, to reconnect to an alternative mobile network in the event of a signal outage.

For individual vehicles, multi-IMSI capabilities provide pinpoint location data across regions, and reduce connectivity costs: by reconnecting to a local mobile operator when crossing a border, the eSIM avoids a roaming fee.

The dynamic, multi-standard connectivity of eSIMs makes them an asset in remote locales: highways are vital connections for the least-inhabited regions of the world – transmitting wireless data in these areas can require a range of standards like long-distance LPWAN, as well as the more familiar 4G and 5G.

IoT in city traffic

Today, IoT road safety processes are being implemented at the individual vehicle, street, city, and multinational levels.

Managing fleets of constantly moving devices is an ongoing challenge, as is managing and parsing the vast volumes of data generated by each interaction. Shared micromobility services like e-scooters provide a clear example of the IoT being leveraged for municipal road safety management. Host cities can stipulate “no-parking” or even “no-access” zones, relayed directly to the driver's mobile phone and the vehicles themselves.

These boundaries can be continually altered in real time to account for events or demonstrations, avoiding bottlenecks and improving pedestrian and road user safety. Two-wheeled vehicles, including e-bikes and scooters, often used in shared mobility services, are at even greater risk of accidents than cars.

Creating a connected strategy that maps the location of each can mitigate this risk. An eSIM-based system can begin to address this by collating all fleet information into a single digital hub.

The 1GLOBAL IoT connectivity management platform

The 1GLOBAL IoT connectivity management platform provides operators with one digital portal to remotely manage all device fleets worldwide.

• Unified device monitoring and diagnostics

• Remote configuration and over-the-air (OTA) updates

• Anomaly detection and incident response

• Rapid deployment and recall of devices at scale

eSIM connectivity allows operators to instantly manage all vehicles from a "single pane of glass", deploying, managing, and recalling connectivity as needed. The 1GLOBAL platform is based on a suite of proprietary APIs, allowing it to integrate with existing MDMs and backends. In the smart mobility sector, where instant data transmission is essential, these unified solutions are key to ensuring safe growth.

The future of connected road safety

As Spain’s new emergency beacons demonstrate, IoT can immediately create significant safety improvements for road users. Wireless technology plays a central role in the European Union’s current aim to eliminate all road fatalities by 2050. As the underlying technology behind connected vehicles continues to improve, these benefits are likely to become more apparent – though several notable challenges remain.

One is public trust. Over a third of drivers on the UK’s IoT-assisted “Smart Motorway” system feel less safe than on a traditional motorway, due to the absence of a dedicated lane for emergency vehicles. On an individual level, connected cars and increased roadside surveillance raise data collection and privacy concerns.

Another is scalability. The number of IoT devices (both commercial and consumer) is set to balloon in the coming years, creating a vast global data demand, compounded by the rising use of AI services. Any smart road safety framework must be able to keep pace with the surging number of connected devices, autonomous vehicles, smart mobility services, and connected cars.

While new developments like 5G networks can mitigate some of this strain, IoT companies must be prepared to scale up their services and device fleets to meet this need. Most significantly, this demand is increasing worldwide: as 4G and 5G wireless networks continue their global rollout, and eSIM compatibility becomes increasingly affordable, 92% of road fatalities occur in low- and middle-income countries.

IoT road safety services have an obligation and opportunity to support international collaboration, underpinned by cross-border connectivity services and geo-redundant networks like 1GLOBAL IoT.

A smart road safety strategy can't exist in isolation – it requires alignment between device and vehicle manufacturers, telecoms companies, city authorities, and national transport bodies.

Navigating this web of differing compliance regulations, device capabilities, and coverage zones requires a unified solution that operates across borders and wireless standards.

1GLOBAL IoT

1GLOBAL empowers companies to deploy IoT fleets across international borders, regulatory jurisdictions, and wireless standards, with total control.

The 1GLOBAL mobile network supplies IoT device connectivity in 190+ countries, with a minimum of three mobile networks in every country – all on a single agreement.

The result is a scalable IoT service that allows users to continually adapt their connectivity requirements to match their fleets and dynamically deploy new devices as needed around the globe.

Learn more about how we help brands prepare for the future of smart roads by contacting our team today.