Silicon Valley and automotive giants are speeding towards a future of connected, autonomous cars. 5G will have a critical role to play in enabling these cars to be smart.
Software companies and car manufacturers are not the only stakeholders with an interest in connected cars. To make roads safer, mobile operators will need to work with the industry as well as highways agencies and metropolitan authorities to create road safety technologies which connected cars can utilise. Operators such as AT&T are already deeply engaged with the industry, connecting over 1 million vehicles a month.
“In a dense city environment 5G networks will connect millions of devices. The data from these devices can be utilised by the vehicles using C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) techniques,” explains GSMA’s Automotive Manager, Sam Brown.
To learn more about 5G and how it can be utilised in automotive and transport, please visit the Innovation City in Hall 4.
“What this means is that vehicles can use this mass of available data from these connected devices as an extra sensor to gain the ability to see things beyond the physical realm of a human driver,” says Brown. “Fused with the vehicle sensor data this creates a powerful ability which will allow the vehicle to adapt to multiple changes from things like traffic lights to air pollution and congestion.”
In addition to discussing the intricacies of Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything communication, the GSMA is translating the acronyms and technical standards into the language of highways agencies and local authorities, who need to know how they are engaging with the ecosystem on regulatory issues. The GSMA is participating in and consulting with the EU Automotive Telecom Alliance, eCall, G5 and 5G (EU and US).
The most important talking point at this juncture is how 5G will create the conditions for the connectivity of Massive IoT within the smart city and the choices that mobile operators face, according to Brown.
A new report from the GSMA, The 5G Era, cites device-to-device interoperability as an imperative for this new generation of connectivity, as part of its 10 Key Insights for the 5G Era.
Download the report HERE