Anupam Malhotra, Audi: As we build a path towards greater road safety, Audi has greatly benefited from our experience deploying services like Audi Traffic Light Information (TLI) and the Audi Intelligent Toll Module (ITM) in the U.S. and beyond. Both systems continue to inform our long term strategy in the areas of automated vehicles and smart city services. Key lessons have been learned around:

• Developing functional contractual relationships with city agencies and their technology partners,
• Systems for proper integration and operation of services,
• Practices for machine learning and intelligent forecasting,
• Human-machine interfaces for achieving a premium and dependable driving experience,
• Organisational processes for achieving acceptable end-to-end service quality, and
• Development of insights as feedback loops to city agencies, which can then be used to improve traffic situations.

Services like TLI require a carefully coordinated dance between the central Traffic Management Centers of a city, cloud-intelligence platforms at Audi’s partner Traffic Technology Services, Audi’s own backend systems, and the software inside an Audi vehicle. With almost 100 agency partnerships in the U.S. alone, the task is certainly not small and requires a high level of collaboration. Additionally, systems must be continually improved as new information emerges which also requires ongoing quality management. Further, the scale of the operation requires a high dependence on automation in the cloud to assure the best overall experience. A good Tech Talk that describes Audi’s journey with the Traffic Light Information service and provides an up-to-date service footprint is available at: https://media.audiusa.com/en-us/releases/412.

The next generation of advances with C-V2X and 5G technologies will bring vehicle-to-everything and Active Safety services to life. The partnerships, technologies, systems, processes and learnings that Audi has gained through our industry leading V2X services are a catalyst enabling faster decision making within the company and generating a clear roadmap for series deployment.

Jim Misener, Qualcomm: C-V2X is integral to the current and future of the telematics platform, which virtually all automakers have chosen. Moreover, C-V2X is that additional feature that allows – in one chipset – access to the WWAN and to direct, short range communication. Add to that the high packet reception rate, a key reliability measure that portends performance, and future-proofing qualities of evolving within 3GPP global specifications which nowadays includes 5G, C-V2X is a particularly compelling radio access technology to deliver today’s and tomorrow’s short-range safety and information sharing services.

Ed Knapp, American Tower: American Tower sees new opportunities to support the growth in connected and automated vehicles with neutral host wireless infrastructure. Currently, our towers support operator public networks for V2N (Vehicle-to-Network) connectivity. Initial connected vehicle use cases will require more 4G and 5G capacity across mobile network operator site portfolios and increasing demand will be satisfied with expanded Massive MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) upgrades. In addition, lower latency V2N use cases amongst vehicles will require neutral host MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) processing locations for cross-operator operation, which is ideally suited for our tower sites. Finally, there is deployment of neutral ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) spectrum at 5.9GHz that requires new RSU (Roadside Unit) infrastructure. C-V2X RSUs can be combined with small cells, wide area V2N and new sensors to create smart, safe roadways and intersections in the future. Digital shared infrastructure will help accelerate the adoption because of the lower overall TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Ultimately, automotive is an important wireless vertical that will take advantage of the low latency 5G wireless architecture and C-V2X.

Ed Knapp, American Tower:American Tower expects the safety use cases to form the baseline, followed by consumer and OEM enabled use cases that create individual and societal benefits. Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) as well all transportation modes will benefit from future C-V2X enabled smart intersections. We expect to see dynamic, creative private and/or public-private “as-a-service” business models determined by intersection and roadway attributes. Emerging data-enabled, value-driven use cases will drive market penetration and adoption. Combining data sets from multiple IoT sensors and wireless connectivity will provide predictive and insightful information. Ultimately, at the heart of this business model is a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) efficient, neutral host open access business model. This will faciliate use case innovation.

Cathy McGhee, VDOT: As the entity responsible for many of the Commonwealth’s roadways, VDOT supports technology that improves the transportation system to make it safer, more efficient, and more accessible. At their full potential, C-V2X applications can achieve such benefits. However, a transportation ecosystem that enables the full potential of C-V2X requires partnerships between government entities at various levels, private organisations across multiple industries, and finally public-private partnerships. Government entities at the local, state and federal level will need to coordinate the implementation of consistent infrastructure and regulation for these applications to work across the country. Private organisations from original equipment manufacturers to telecommunication businesses to device manufacturers will need to collaborate in order to produce C-V2X devices and applications that are interoperable. Finally, government and private entities will need to share information, issues and solutions to enable the C-V2X ecosystem. In recognition of this need for partners, VDOT has been taking part in efforts, like the C-V2X deployment with Audi, Qualcomm, American Tower, and VTTI, to create partnerships in support of C-V2X.