Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. (Photo: Daniel Danilov)
Autotalks’ second-generation chipsets have been selected by Harman International to provide the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) chipset for the Harman telematics platform. The platform will be showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show, taking place Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.
With V2X, all vehicles share location, speed and trajectory, giving drivers warnings of on-road dangers. Autotalks’ second-generation chipsets are mass-market ready and support both DSRC and C-V2X direct communications (PC5 protocol).
Harman is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets.
Harman will showcase a connectivity display of its telematics platform with C-V2X capabilities. The live demonstration will show a vehicle communicating with a motorcycle using C-V2X direct communications (the Autotalks chipset is used in both).
Harman’s solution consists of a modular telematics control unit (TEC) accommodating a cellular network access device (NAD) beside Autotalks’ second-generation chipset providing C-V2X capabilities. Autotalks C-V2X capabilities consist of a 3GPP compliant PC5 modem, with dual antenna and diversity for both transmission and reception, as well as an optimized closed-loop remote antenna solution for the highest radio performance.
“Autotalks is proud to work with Harman on their TCU with our secure and deployment-ready C-V2X solution,” said Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. “We are excited to have our chipset inside Harman’s telematics platform and to demonstrate the flexibility and maturity of our global V2X solution which has been chosen for series production by leading automakers.”
“Together with Harman, we will achieve deployment readiness before the mass-commercialization of C-V2X in China and elsewhere,” Zyss said.
“We are pleased to showcase Autotalks’ C-V2X capabilities in our Telematics platform at CES 2019,” said Mike Peters, president, Connected Car Division at Harman. “The Autotalks chipset provides us with the flexibility, security and performance needed in today’s worldwide market for telematics and V2X.”
Autotalks’ V2X chipset is now available for customer and partner demonstrations.
Rohde & Schwarz and Huawei have successfully conducted cellular-based 5G V2X latency measurements in vehicular environments in field tests in Munich and Shanghai.
In a joint project between Huawei and Rohde & Schwarz, a precision end-to-end delay measurement system for over-the-air IP transmissions was applied to 5G V2X communication for cooperative driving applications in field tests in a moving car.
The precision absolute time standards on both ends were derived from two independent GPS receivers.
URLLC will enable automated driving. (Image: Rohde & Schwarz)
The initial measurements show that it is possible to achieve delays in the millisecond regime in a 5G network, demonstrating superior latency performance in comparison to LTE.
One of the key use cases of 5G is ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). Important for advanced vehicle-to-X communication use cases, URLLC will enable automated driving in the future.
A measurement accuracy below 2 µs for each transmitted IP packet was demonstrated. The transmitted data contained various IP traffic streams including video, lidar and control data (ITS messages) for a tele-operated vehicle.
While the trial in Munich was related to a tele-operated driving project, the tests in Shanghai were related to a platoon V2X testing site, where a number of vehicles traveling together are electronically connected via wireless communication.
The delay for transmission of one IP packet from source over-the-air to a (moving) receiver (sink) needs to be measured, spanning all delays introduced by the radio transmitter, propagation delay and radio receiver from/to IP packet level.
As latency is one of the key performance indicators of 5G and crucial for safety applications, such measurements could become an important criterion for future certification testing.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Huawei to contribute with our test and measurement expertise to 5G technology development,” said Andreas Pauly, executive vice president, Test & Measurement at Rohde & Schwarz. “With a strong global footprint in the telco ecosystem and close cooperation with partners, Rohde & Schwarz is committed to further expanding our innovative test and measurement solutions to new automotive applications.”
Cohda Wireless has successfully demonstrated its connected autonomous vehicle technology in a live trial on the streets of the city of Adelaide, Australia.
The trial proved the potential for connected self-driven vehicles to make streets safer and that Cohda’s technology is effective even in challenging urban canyons.
In an area covering two city blocks east of Adelaide’s Victoria Square, the demonstration replicated a scenario that is a daily occurrence on the streets of cities all over the world.
In the scenario, two vehicles approach a four-way intersection at right angles to each other. Car 2, driven by a human, fails to adhere to the red-light signal and approaches the intersection at speed, intending to “skip” the red light. Car 1, a connected autonomous vehicle, is approaching the intersection from another direction and intends to proceed through the intersection on the green light.
In a real-life scenario, there would be a risk of a collision as human drivers will invariably approach the intersection when the light is green, fully confident that all other road users will obey the traffic signals. In an instance where Car 2 disobeyed the traffic signal and Car 1 was unable to see the approaching danger, due to visibility being obstructed by buildings or other infrastructure, a collision would be especially likely.
But as Cohda Wireless’s Chief Technical Officer Professor Paul Alexander explained, if the vehicles were connected using Cohda’s V2X (Vehicle-To-Everything) technology, a potential collision situation would be detected and avoided well in advance of it actually happening.
“We demonstrated that when vehicles are connected to each other using our smart V2X technology, Car 1, the connected autonomous vehicle, would detect that Car 2 is approaching the red light at speed and is probably not going to stop. This allows the connected autonomous vehicle to pre-emptively identify and respond to the threat by slowing down and stopping.”
“Cohda’s V2X technology allows vehicles to ‘speak to each other’ to extend their perception horizon,” added Alexander.
“The technology provides the vehicle with an awareness of its environment and risk factors associated with it, consistently and accurately up to ten times per second, enabling it to make decisions that a human being would not be capable of making as the driver of the vehicle.”
Cohda’s Smart Cars Smart City initiative was funded by the South Australian Department of Transport and Infrastructure’s Future Mobility Lab Fund. In June this year, Cohda Wireless took ownership of two specially-modified vehicles from the U.S. that it is using in advanced trials of its V2X (Vehicle-To-Everything) technology.
The two Lincoln MKZ sedans were fitted with the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), ROS (Robot Operating System) various sensors including lidar, radar, cameras, GPS as well as in-vehicle compute platform and Cohda’s GNSS- independent positioning technology.
The fusion and cooperation of the various sensors and Cohda’s V2X technology augment the vehicles’ perception capability and make the autonomous vehicles features more practical, to include threat detection, the dangers associated with blind intersections and vulnerable road users, the company said.
“Our goal today was not only to demonstrate the efficacy of our technology in enabling self-driven vehicles to communicate with each other, but also to do so in a city environment where so-called ‘urban canyons’ significantly affect the ability of systems reliant on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to achieve accurate positioning,” Alexander said.
“The area in the city of Adelaide in which the trial was conducted was one such urban canyon where positioning through GNSS can be off by up to 40 meters, but with our V2X Locate technology positioning accuracy is improved to within a meter.”
Photo: Cohda Wireless
Cohda Wireless demonstrated the efficacy and accuracy of its V2X-Locate system in a 2017 trial in New York City where it repeatedly demonstrated sub-meter accuracy while driving along Sixth Avenue, which has the tallest buildings in the Big Apple. Comparably tested GPS-based systems were as much as tens of meters off-course, at times showing cars driving through buildings.
Cohda’s V2X technology underpins and complements other technology used by autonomous vehicles such as cameras, sensors, radars and lidars by enabling cooperative perception.
“The role of technology in making our roads safer is probably not generally understood but we hope that this demonstration has helped to prove that with the appropriate technology and infrastructure, connected self-driving vehicles are safer to have on our roads than vehicles controlled entirely by human beings,” added Alexander.
Israel-based Autotalks has launched what it calls a global V2X (vehicle-to-everything) chipset.
The chipset supports both dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology — both allow vehicles to share their location and speed to help prevent accidents and improve the safety of autonomous driving systems, the company said.
The chipset’s processor also could allow customers to switch between the two standards. It minimizes development, testing and certification efforts for a V2X system to be deployed anywhere via a software-defined toggle between the two V2X technologies.
Two competing standards
Automakers have announced intentions to equip their new car models with V2X technology. In recent years, V2X has diverged into two different solutions, DSRC and C-V2X.
While DSRC-based V2X is deployed in the U.S., Europe and Japan, C-V2X is gaining momentum in other regions. Its fundamentally different architectures have made it difficult to harmonize a single global solution.
Autotalks’ response is to equip its second-generation chipsets with C-V2X in addition to native support of DSRC.
Autotalks’ deployment-ready, second-generation V2X chipset supports both DSRC and C-V2X direct communications (PC5 protocol) at the highest security level. According to the company, the chipset supports DSRC based on 802.11p/ITS-G5 standards and C-V2X based on 3GPP specifications.
Autotalks said its chipsets were designed to meet V2X market requirements and standards, including security, environmental, quality, thermal and other requirements.
NXP Semiconductors N.V. has announced the next phase in its Smart City collaboration with Columbus, Ohio, the winner of the 2016 U.S. Department of Transportation’s $40 million Smart City Challenge.
NXP will contribute key technologies for smart and safe mobility to the Smart Columbus Experience Center.
Smart Center. On June 30, the City of Columbus celebrated the opening of its Smart Columbus Experience Center. The center allows visitors to see how new mobility options, such as connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicles, will help make Columbus a more connected community.
Hands-on educational experiences and technology demonstrations aim to show visitors how technology and innovation in transportation can grow the local economy and create ladders of opportunity for central Ohio residents.
Visitors to the Smart Columbus Experience Center will learn how Vehicle to Everything (V2X) Technology allows cars to communicate with each other as well as with intelligent traffic infrastructure to keep mobility safe and efficient. (Image: NXP USA)
Cohda Wireless. As part of the Smart Columbus Experience Center initiative, NXP and Cohda Wireless will deploy a connected vehicle environment through the center’s electric vehicle test drive area so drivers can experience this future technology in person.
NXP has also donated an electric motorcycle with an accompanying drone that alerts the driver to dangers or delays ahead.
Key smart city technologies
As part of its commitment to Columbus, NXP will continue to contribute key mobility technologies to the Smart Columbus Experience Center, including:
NXP’s RoadLINK V2X technology allows cars to communicate with each other as well as with intelligent traffic infrastructures. The IEEE802.11p Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) standard allows cars to securely connect to each other as well as to infrastructure. DSRC technology is the only ADAS sensor that can look around the corner and offers lowest latency in the communication.
Smart Card IC technology that enhances transportation for all citizens by supporting secure and convenient public transportation ticketing and payment systems, including contactless transit fare solutions.
Highly secure NXP Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions designed to promote public safety and convenience. Smart City applications for this NXP technology include vehicle window stickers that enhance driver convenience and reduce municipal costs by eliminating the need for stop-and-pay stations in public parking spaces.
NXP eBike and Drone demo at the new Smart Columbus Experience Center shows how drones could send real-time video of a traffic incident to a city emergency vehicle. (Image: NXP USA)
Concept of Operations released
Smart Columbus, the smart city initiative from the City of Columbus, in July released the Concept of Operations for its Connected Vehicle Environment (CVE) pilot.
The Concept of Operations outlines in detail how the CVE pilot will be implemented over the next two years. The pilot will involve:
113 road side units (RSUs) that will be installed at intersections with stoplights
up to 1,800 on-board units (OBUs) that will be installed on participating private, emergency transit and freight vehicles, and
12 vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure applications that will be deployed, according to the document.
Goals of the CVE pilot include improvements of:
vehicle operator safety
intersection safety
school zone safety
reliability of transit vehicle schedule adherence
emergency vehicle response times
traffic management capabilities.
Smart city demonstrations. Visitors to the Smart Columbus Experience Center can try out electric automobiles. A fleet of six electric vehicles will be on display and is available for test drives through a connected vehicle environment provided by NXP and Cohda Wireless.
Vehicles on display or available for test drives include:
a BMW i3 provided by BMW
a Chevrolet Bolt provided by Dave Gill Chevrolet
a Honda Clarity provided by Honda
a Mercedes-Benz GLE 55e provided by Daimler
a Nissan LEAF provided by Nissan North America
a Toyota Prius Prime provided by Toyota.
An electric motorcycle provided by NXP and a Ford Ojo electric scooter are also on display.
Globalstar has launched an automotive division to support connectivity solutions for the next generation of connected and autonomous vehicles and intelligent transport. With Globalstar’s two-way global and broadcast-capable network, automakers will be able to comply with the newest safety regulations, deliver over-the-air (OTA) software updates, increase location accuracy, and improve the reliability for autonomous vehicle operation.
Globalstar’s next-generation global, hybrid network service is designed to leverage both satellite and terrestrial technologies to connect cars. The highly scalable broadcast/multi-cast network delivers common content to multiple users with virtually unlimited scalability.
The network has enhanced GNSS accuracy and integrity with protection levels to increase the safety and reliability of autonomous driving systems.
It is an efficient and secure broadcast service for critical security patches and OTA updates to software and firmware in Telematics Control Units (TCUs), Electronics Control Units (ECUs), and Head Units (HUs), as well as map tile and map layer data. It also provides datacasting of traffic, weather, hazards, and other alerts.
Global connectivity provides optimized routing of content and services.
Telematics. Increased coverage and reliability for ACN/eCall, roadside assistance, vehicle tracking and telemetry. Data can be pulled from vehicles for remote diagnostics, condition-based maintenance, and preventative analytics.
Managed Security. Secure link for global certifcate and key management, audits and compliance monitoring, that aslo enables service to patch vulnerabilities, and update firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS).
The vehicle-based system V2X-Locate can identify vehicle position to sub-meter accuracy in environments that degrade GPS accuracy, such as tunnels and underground carparks, and between high-rise buildings.
As well as enhancing current connected vehicles, V2X-Locate delivers a critical component for connected autonomous vehicles (CAV), which will require uninterrupted positioning data to safely navigate on roads. V2X-Locate enables equipped vehicles to identify their location using existing Smart City V2X (vehicle-to-everything) roadside infrastructure from any standards-based manufacturer.
V2X-Locate positions the vehicle with sub-meter accuracy by using existing communications signals produced by V2X Smart City infrastructure deployments. The result is that V2X-Locate can eliminate positioning black spots in city centers.
The In-Car Advertising Platform enables automotive OEMs to generate revenue by delivering ads to cars in a safe, user-friendly and contextually relevant way. The end-to-end offering for OEM partners is powered by Telenav’s In-Car Ads SDK (software development kit) and cloud-based intelligent targeting platform.
To ensure driver safety, ads only appear when the vehicle is stopped, such as at car startup, traffic lights and upon arrival. The ads automatically disappear whenever the car is in motion or when users interact with other in-dash functions such as music or phone calls.
Relevant ads such as coupons and recommendations are delivered to customers based on information from the vehicle, including frequently traveled routes, destinations and time of the day. For instance, when the vehicle is low on gas, the platform points out nearby stations along the driver’s route, potentially with discount offers.
The Through Glass Integrated V2X Antenna is designed for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. The design incorporates an integrated GNSS antenna on the interior coupler. The antenna pairs with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) devices.
The dual-radio, glass-mounted antenna eliminates the risk of damaging the vehicle by using a coupling pair to pass DSRC signals between the vehicle’s interior and exterior, eliminating the need to pass RF cables through the roof or window opening. It antenna can be mounted on the rear, front or side windows using automotive-grade glass adhesive. Flexible installation allows the shortest cable route to the V2X device, reducing signal losses due to cable length.
Australian company Cohda Wireless has released a vehicle positioning system to eliminate GPS black spots in “urban canyons” between high-rise buildings.
Using Cohda’s expertise in developing collision avoidance systems for mines, the vehicle-based system, V2X-Locate, can identify vehicle position to sub-meter accuracy in environments that degrade GPS accuracy, such as tunnels, underground carparks and between high-rise buildings.
As well as enhancing current connected vehicles, V2X-Locate delivers a critical component for connected autonomous vehicles (CAV), which will require uninterrupted positioning data to safely navigate on roads, the company said.
Image: Cohda Wireless
Cohda has designed V2X-Locate to enable equipped vehicles to identify their location using existing Smart City V2X (vehicle-to-everything) roadside infrastructure from any standards-based manufacturer.
Cohda Wireless Chief Technology Officer Paul Alexander said V2X-Locate was a globally unique product. “We solve the problem caused by GPS and satellite-based positioning systems not working in all use-cases,” he said.
“If you’re in a major downtown area with tall buildings, or in a tunnel or in an underground parking lot, a GPS system can fail, preventing it from delivering accurate results,” Alexander said. “As well as being inconvenient for current drivers, this is not an option as we enter the era of driverless cars. The V2X-Locate breakthrough is to position the vehicle with sub-meter accuracy by using the existing communications signals produced by V2X Smart City infrastructure deployments. The result is that V2X-Locate can eliminate positioning black spots in city centers where they are most likely to occur.”
Cohda Wireless demonstrated V2X-Locate in a 2017 trial in New York City, where it repeatedly demonstrated sub-meter accuracy while driving along Sixth Avenue, which has the tallest buildings in the Big Apple. Comparably tested GPS-based systems were as much as tens of meters off-course, at times showing cars driving through buildings.
Alexander said Cohda Wireless had designed V2X-Locate by using its experience developing collision avoidance technology for underground mines. “The hardest place to do positioning is one kilometer underground with a cubic kilometer of copper above your head,” he said.
“That’s where V2X-Locate was born,” Alexander said. “Cohda has worked in that area for several years, providing accurate positioning for vehicles where no GPS connectivity is available. We’ve now successfully migrated that technology from mine sites of the outback to the urban canyons of New York City.”
V2X_Locate uses the NXP SAF5400 single-chip modem for V2X. (Photo: NXP)
Both Cohda’s standard V2X onboard units and roadside units use the NXP RoadLINK chipset, which supports V2X-Locate’s highly accurate performance by delivering multipath channel tracking.
After a pre-release international roadshow in October last year, Cohda Wireless received strong interest in V2X-Locate from both Smart Cities and Tier 1 automotive manufacturers. To meet that demand, Cohda Wireless has released a V2X-Locate Evaluation Kit, which contains the system and four roadside unit devices, which equip prospective customers to put V2X-Locate through its paces.
Danlaw Inc. has released its Through Glass Integrated V2X Antenna for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications.
The design incorporates an integrated GNSS antenna on the interior coupler. Optional cellular, Wi-Fi, and other antennas are also available on request.
The antenna pairs with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) devices to enable vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications.
Traditional aftermarket antennas require drilling holes or passing cables through window and door openings, which risks damaging vehicle seals.
Danlaw’s dual-radio, glass-mounted antenna eliminates the risk of damaging the vehicle by using a coupling pair-to-pass DSRC signals between the vehicle’s interior and exterior.
The easy-to-install antenna can be mounted on the rear, front or side windows using automotive grade glass adhesive. This flexible installation allows the shortest cable route to the V2X device, reducing signal losses due to cable length, the company said.
“Our customers running pilot programs want to install V2X DSRC systems on vehicles with best-in-class RF performance without modifying their cars,” said Scott Morell, Danlaw’s vice president of engineering. “Combined with our Aftermarket V2X Safety Device, this enables V2X capabilities to be installed on vehicles simply and easily.”
The antenna enhances Danlaw’s Connected Vehicle portfolio which includes an aftermarket safety device (ASD) and V2X development tools.
The ASD has been selected by pilot programs supporting multiple applications, including critical safety advice, driver access solutions, and real-time road condition and congestion information.
Danlaw development tools include the OmniAir-certified Mx-DSRC Conformance Test System and Mx-Drive Mobility Simulator.
Detailed specifications for the antenna are available.
Australian tech firm Cohda Wireless has trialed its vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) technology on city streets for the first time.
The technology was originally designed to allow cars and motorcycles to avoid collisions by talking to each other.
In collaboration with Telstra and the South Australian Government, Cohda Wireless has conducted the first test of V2P technology over a mobile network in South Australia’s capital, Adelaide.
The system uses mobile technology to provide an early-collision warning to a driver and also alerts a pedestrian or cyclist via a smartphone application.
This innovation could become available in the 16 million smartphones in use in Australia and could potentially be extended to the two billion smartphones worldwide, the company said.
Cohda Wireless CEO Paul Gray said the trials highlighted the impact of vehicle-to-everything communications on community safety.
“Giving vehicles 360-degree situational awareness and sharing real-time driving information is the only way we can create safer roads for the future,” Gray said. “Cohda’s ongoing partnership with Telstra also demonstrates Cohda’s ability to deliver Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) solutions, an important part of the complete V2X system.”
The technology makes use of available 4G networks to allow riders, drivers and pedestrians who are further away to reliably receive necessary information.
Before a driver turns a blind corner the system will notify them of any pedestrian or cyclist crossing the adjacent street.
It was tested using other common scenarios, such as a car and a cyclist approaching a blind corner, a car reversing out of a driveway, and a car approaching a pedestrian crossing.
The trial was funded in part by the South Australian government’s AU$10 million Future Mobility Lab Fund to boost local testing, research and development of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies.
Cohda commands about 60 percent of the global vehicle-to-vehicle communication market.
It previously developed a “digital protective shield” system, which transmitted information such as vehicle types, speed, position and direction of travel between cars and motorcycles, at a rate of up to 10 times per second to ensure a high level of accuracy.
This service could be transmitted to any device within a several hundred-metre radius.
Telstra Chief Technology Officer Håkan Eriksson said the technology would make Australian roads safer, more efficient, and better-prepared for the future of autonomous vehicles.
“The most important outcome of V2X technology is the increased safety for road users, as the impact of human error can be minimized by helping vehicles communicate with each other and react to their surroundings,” he said. “This is the first time V2P technology has been trialled in Australia on a 4G network, and is an important step on the journey to fully-autonomous vehicles on Australian roads.”
South Australia has a history of involvement with autonomous car research and in 2015 held the first driverless car trials in the Southern Hemisphere.
It hosts a number of leading autonomous car companies including Cohda Wireless and its innovative V2X (Vehicle to everything) technology and RDM Group, which opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Adelaide earlier this year.
South Australia is also a leading driverless car research hub and earlier this week the University of Adelaide managed to improve artificial vision systems by studying dragonflies and other insects.
V2X companies u‑blox, Commsignia and NXP Semiconductors announced a strategic collaboration to address the rapidly growing demand for reliable vehicle‑to‑vehicle (V2V) and vehicle‑to‑infrastructure (V2I) technology.
The adoption of V2X technology in North America and European markets equips new vehicles with the ability to securely and anonymously share information with other similarly equipped vehicles, infrastructure and even pedestrians within a radius of up to 1 km.
IEEE 802.11p V2X technology is the only proven and production ready technology today that can reliably see around corners, the companies said. V2X information will augment the awareness of drivers to improve safety, reduce congestion and emissions, thereby delivering real savings and benefits to all road users today and in the future for self-driving autonomous vehicles.
This collaboration builds on the strengths of all three companies to deliver substantial time-to-market advantages and benefits to automotive customers, with future-proof solutions that optimize investments and mitigate risks.
Automotive manufacturers are looking for ways to bring V2X to market now, ramping up to 100 percent implementation in new cars within the next five years. This collaboration between three of the market leaders will accelerate the adoption of V2X technology thanks to the availability of fully integrated hardware and software solutions in a fully‑fledged and secure (US DOT SCMS compliant) V2X system.
https://youtu.be/fyGDrtVbUOY
“This collaboration focuses on delivering production-ready Vehicle‑to‑Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle‑to‑Infrastructure (V2I) systems like our V2X communication module,” said Costas Meimetis, director of product strategy, u-blox. “We are already present in the market through our THEO module family, this collaboration will strengthen our position and allow u‑blox to innovate faster, bringing new solutions to market starting. Our expertise and this collaboration means we are uniquely positioned to meet the increasing demand from automotive manufacturers, who must meet new legislation in key markets.”
“NXP’s status as a Dedicated Short‑Range Communication (DSRC) V2X technology leader, is a key reason u‑blox chose NXP’s RoadLINK solution, a complete automotive-grade 2 +105C ambient, V2X system solution with best‑in‑class performance to power their V2X module,” said Rob Hoeben, senior director, V2X segment. V2X is the only ADAS technology that operates in real-time, lowest latency and sees around corners, facilitating self-driving autonomous vehicles.
V2X, IEEE 802.11p-based, is complementary to 5G versions of V2X and both technologies are expected to co-exist for the foreseeable future. NXP has participated in several V2X demos and trials, including truck platooning, achieving short separation distances between trucks.
NXP’s RoadLINK solution, which is now in production with a major North American OEM, will help ensure the u-blox module can deliver accurate and reliable communications to and from a vehicle.
“Commsignia leads the market with the best end‑to‑end V2X software suite for connecting cars and smart city infrastructure,” said Jozsef Kovacs, CEO of Commsignia. “Combined with the NXP RoadLINK chipset and u‑blox module, automotive manufacturers can benefit from the enhanced performance of a secure and fully integrated solution to implement V2X technology in new vehicle designs, so taking the next step towards improving the safety and efficiency of our roads.”
u-blox, Commsignia and NXP, will be demonstrating live how this collaboration is enabling life-saving V2V applications at the TU-Automotive Detroit Conference and Expo June 7‑8. The demo entitled “Fast track to safe & secure V2X” will show the following use cases:
A V2X test system developed by Spirent and Tata Elxsi has been adopted by CAICT, a scientific research institute directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.
V2X, or “vehicle to everything,” includes vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) connected technology as well as vehicles to pedestrians, devices or transportation grids.
Tata Elxsi, based in Bangalore, India, is a design and technology services provider for product engineering in industries including broadcast, communications and automotive.
The next-generation test system provides a flexible, scalable and comprehensive test environment for testing and performance benchmarking of V2X applications, in various stages of the development cycle, from early research up to pre-production.
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) in Beijing.
Using a combination of Tata Elxsi’s patent-pending V2X Emulator software and Spirent’s advanced solutions for GNSS and radio channel simulation, the integrated V2X test bed offers the ability to bring real-world traffic scenarios into the lab, significantly reducing costs and time associated with extensive field testing.
Various driving scenarios can be emulated under a variety of terrain, wireless channel and atmospheric conditions. The V2X test bed, which supports both WAVE-DSRC (U.S., Asia) and ITS-G5 (Europe) standards, offers a comprehensive platform for both functional and performance assessment of V2V and V2I/I2V safety applications, V2X security testing and test report generation.
“V2X technology is gaining tremendous interest among global OEMs and tier-1 companies for delivering safer driving experience,” said Nitin Pai, senior vice president of marketing, Tata Elxsi. “With China being the largest automotive market in the world, this latest win with CAICT in China is significant for us and automotive companies targeting this market.”
The V2X Test System enables multi-standards compliance testing using a single solution. The system has the capability to emulate more than 100 onboard units (OBU) and roadside units (RSUs) on a single hardware, enabling repeatable testing of complex scenarios from early development stages without the high risks and costs associated with live vehicle testing.
“V2X communication will contribute significantly to making the autonomous car a safe and secure reality,” said Peter Tan, Greater China and East Asia, Spirent. “The U.S. DOT’s [Department of Transportation] newly issued regulation proposal mandating V2V communication for light vehicles is another confirmation of this widely accepted fact. With test solutions for conformance, functionality and performance developed in partnership with Tata Elxsi, Spirent is proud to help our customers ensure that their devices meet all conformance functionality and performance requirements to master these major changes ahead.”
Tata Elxsi is showcasing the V2X Test System along with an array of other automotive solutions covering integrated e-cockpit, infotainment, ADAS, autonomous vehicle technology and telematics at its booth 6223 at CES 2017, Las Vegas.
Chaminda Basnayake, Principal Engineer, V2X Systems, Renesas Electronics
In the basic V2X concept of operation, everybody will be talking to each other, will be aware of each other. Any car will be broadcasting BSMs, pedestrian or personal devices will be broadcasting an equivalent message, called personal safety messages (PSM), and then all the control devices like traffic control will broadcast signal-based timing information, SPAT messages, intersection maps and GPS correction data.
The expectation in the system design is that all vehicles will provide position information and location accuracy, and the vehicle should be able to get this from itself and from others.
The idea is that every vehicle should be able to relatively position everyone else, and then with the onboard device, the vehicle should be able to position itself with respect to the roadway.
A lot of applications are out there. A good source of further information on these is put together by the Connected Vehicle Reference Implementation Architecture, a U.S. Department of Transportation initiative.
Connected Car Gateway for applications such as emergency calling, telematics, infotainment data distribution and usage-based insurance. (Image: u-blox)
John Kenney, Director and Principal Researcher, Network Division, Toyota InfoTechnology Center
A couple of issues are hot today with regard to spectrum and how we’re going to use it: what kinds of technology to use to support V2X, in the United States and around the world, and also whether that spectrum can be shared by other technologies for other purposes.
V2X is an inherently ad hoc network, and that makes evolution across generations a much more challenging task than we are used to seeing in the cellular environment.
Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) technology is now mature, and it’s entering the deployment phase. The cellular V2X technology that’s in the initial standardization is interesting; it offers benefits by complementing DSRC, but we don’t want to see it positioned as a competitor. The auto industry wants to remove uncertainty (regarding spectrum sharing) but only in a way that does not threaten DSRC’s safety-of-life mission.
Nikolaos Papadopoulos, President, u-blox America
The adjacent figure shows an in-vehicle module for emergency calling, other positioning applications and infotainment. The blue boxes show the components that we supply: the GNSS with three-dimensional dead reckoning, and in the future with lane-level accuracy, the TOBY 4000 with the customer application, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and near-field communications.
I have shown examples in this webinar where we can clearly identify lane changes with a combination of GNSS technologies.
We very much encourage both Tier Ones and OEMs to keep the cellular technology, the short-range communication technology, and the GNSS positioning technology separate. The advances in GNSS and positioning for autonomous vehicles are truly extraordinary, and can only be done in the separate GNSS technology.
How to put the car on a nap? Positioning technology options. (Image: Renesas Electronics)
Roger Berg, Vice President, Wireless Technologies, DENSO North American R&D Laboratories
The video example that I showed here, of advance warning of a braking car hidden from your line of sight ahead of you, used a Toyota vehicle, a u-blox positional element, and a Renesas V2V component.
We’ve learned through experience that one company can’t do it all. This is an ecosystem that requires connectivity and cooperation. No longer is a vehicle its own entity; it does not operate separate from infrastructure and other road users. And finally, we can’t necessarily predict how connected and automated drivers interact with so-called regular vehicles, those controlled by human drivers. It’s going to take a lot of collaboration between industry, academia and government to be effective.
