Luca Pascotto, FIA head of road safety and global advocacy, explores how data, connected vehicles and simulation technologies are reshaping approaches to road safety and enabling more proactive risk prevention

Across the world, mobility is changing at speed, and our understanding of road safety is evolving with it. For many in the UK, the image of road safety may be traffic lights, seatbelts or even a lollipop lady outside a school. These measures are of course important for road safety, but the reality for modern mobility is far less visible.

With the connected vehicle more available in showrooms and sales courts, and the increasing intelligence of transport infrastructure, the data generated by these systems is growing exponentially. But it’s how we make sense of this information and turn data into practical road safety tools that can help fleet operators and policymakers better understand risk, and act on it.

By combining data-driven insights with modern technology, we can shift from reacting to road traffic crashes to proactively preventing them. This is central to the work of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), where initiatives like the FIA Road Safety Index, FIA Driver Safety Index and the Roadscor project, are illustrating how data and technology are driving meaningful road safety improvements in the digital age.

Tracking road safety footprints
Too often, road safety efforts only focus on the individual level. While each person’s actions make a difference, it’s organisations and fleet owners who can really drive change at scale.

The amount of data that companies and governments have access to is already informing corporate and policy decisions. Tracking carbon footprints is now common practice as many organisations work towards net zero. And for some, this approach is being taken to road safety.

In the same way as tracking carbon footprints, the FIA Road Safety Index (RSI) gives organisations a data-driven methodology to assess, manage, report, and improve their road safety footprint, and embed a culture of safety across their operations.

Private sector organisations are already using the FIA RSI to strengthen their approach to safe mobility, with Amazon, Uber, IKEA Supply Chain Operations and Waymo implementing it through their fleets and logistics networks. And in the public sector, conversations are ongoing with the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which manages the largest municipal fleet in the United States. 

But subscribing to a methodology only works if outcomes are improved and verified, and that’s why the FIA RSI recognises road safety commitment through a star-based rating system. Just as chefs compete for three-stars from the Michelin Guide, organisations seek three-star accreditation from the FIA RSI, strengthening trust from business partners, communities and regulators by demonstrating they understand and manage their risks effectively. With the programme soon moving to five-star recognition, it will set a new gold standard for road safety. 

Most recently, Poste Italiane, one of Italy’s largest delivery networks of almost 31,000 vehicles, was awarded the maximum rating, while tech giant Lenovo became the first Chinese organisation to receive three stars for its operations in China.

Artificial intelligence is revealing how drivers really think and act on the road
Policies and safety standards alone don’t improve road safety, they’re only effective when informed by a clear understanding of real-world driver behaviour. This understanding allows organisations to identify gaps in road safety culture, and target efforts where they can make the biggest difference. 

The leading cause of death for children and young people worldwide is road traffic crashes,  and human behaviour remains one of the biggest contributors to this reality. Speeding, mobile phone use, ignoring pedestrian crossings, are all decisions made behind the wheel that add up to the 1.19 million road deaths reported annually.  

Recognising the impact of these choices makes the Safe System approach essential. Because human error and unsafe behaviour are inevitable, we cannot rely on perfect compliance to save lives.

Traditional surveys provide a snapshot of driver behaviour but rarely capture the full picture. The FIA Driver Safety Index (DSI) aims to support organisations with an accurate measure of driver risk to inform evidence-based decisions.
Powered by Greater Than’s AI technology, trained on over 20 years of real-world driving records across 106 countries, the FIA DSI uses GPS data to quantify the risk of being involved in a crash and offers a universal scoring system to make driver risk measurable, comparable and actionable.

No two organisations are the same, and each has its own challenges and behaviours to address. Taking this into account is vital to ensure organisations benchmark their progress against comparable regions and industries and take action to reduce the impact of human decision-making in road traffic crashes.

By turning behavioural data into clear insights, governments and businesses can better target their policies, training and enforcement strategies to deliver more effective interventions. 

A virtual world protecting road users in an ancient city
Data and technology are not only transforming how we understand behaviour, they are also enabling us to simulate how road users and infrastructure interact in real-world conditions. This matters because the roads we travel on can determine whether a mistake behind the wheel becomes a tragedy, especially in dense urban environments. 

Historically, assessing road risk in cities has been lengthy and resource-intensive. City planners typically rely on inspections, surveys or crash data analysis, but without advanced technologies, these processes are time-consuming, with solutions often implemented years after incidents occur. Time is then needed to assess whether the solution is even effective. We cannot afford to be purely reactive and leave risks unaddressed for so long when it comes to road safety.

In the heart of Rome, the FIA, in collaboration with its Member Club the Automobile Club d’Italia and Roma Capitale, joined EIT Urban Mobility to support the first implementation of Roadscor, using simulation to identify potential traffic conflicts at intersections and prevent crashes before they happen. 

Intersections are among the highest-risk areas in cities, where multiple road users come together, creating complex situations that are difficult to predict. Roadscor addressed this challenge by building a digital twin of one of the city’s busiest intersections, simulating thousands of interactions to identify potential conflicts, including near misses that would otherwise go unseen. 

Instead of relying solely on historical crash records, Roadscor integrates a variety of data sources, including road characteristics, traffic patterns and movement analysis, to provide a more complete picture of risk and a digital testing ground. 
For city authorities, this means gaining valuable time by testing interventions virtually, prioritising investments more effectively and implementing the best solutions to save lives. In Rome, Roadscor proved that redesigning the intersection could reduce potential collisions by 70 per cent.

This shift, from reactive crash analysis to proactive risk identification, is one of the most exciting developments in road safety and if it can work in a city like Rome, this could be translated to other regions worldwide.

Turning data and technology into meaningful change on the road
Technology alone will not solve the global road safety challenge, but when its effective use is rooted in human-centric design, it can dramatically improve how we address the problem.

Scaling these solutions requires strong collaboration, clear and trusted frameworks for responsible data use, and continued innovation to measure and manage safety across an increasingly complex mobility system.

The building blocks are in place, the challenge, and the opportunity, is to turn that insight into meaningful action.