5G Americas Report Highlights Impact of 5G on Connected, Autonomous Cars
5G Americas, recently published Cellular V2X Communications Towards 5G, a whitepaper examining the role of 5G technologies in cellular-based vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications.
For many years there has been a goal that vehicles should be able to communicate with not only other vehicles (V2V) but also with nearby infrastructure (V2I), Internet-based networks (V2N) and even pedestrians (V2P). Collectively these use cases have become known as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connectivity.
Now, with advances in electronics, sensing technologies and computing techniques such as machine learning and computer vision, these use cases are starting to become reality, according to the whitepaper, which points out that new vehicles today can take a more active role by warning drivers of potential collisions with oncoming vehicles, assisting with emergency braking and monitoring intersections, to name just a few examples. This represents a big step forward from relying on passive safety features such as seat belts and air bags.
In the automotive industry, this trend is viewed as the beginning of an evolution to automated and eventually fully autonomous vehicles. In an autonomous vehicle scenario, the vehicle’s on-board computers will be fully capable of performing all driving operations on their own, with no human intervention required. This still is a few years away, but trials are underway, test vehicles are on the road, and international standards are in development.
“International standards for Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything communication are currently being developed and will positively affect our everyday lives. The rapidly evolving connected car market truly demonstrates the speed at which we are progressing in the evolving mobile wireless industry,” said Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas, in a prepared statement. “The 5G-based solutions for vehicles will aim to provide advanced vehicle-to-everything communications capabilities offering the promise for efficient transportation, improved safety and much more in the near future.”