Vehicle-to-infrastructure technology starts to prove its value

When sight and attention fail, as in the fog bank that caused a 168-vehicle crash on Interstate 55 in New Orleans last month, connected infrastructure and vehicles can warn drivers of hazards through vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, technology.

The 5G Automotive Association hosted a demonstration last month at the University of Michigan's Mcity test track in Ann Arbor to illustrate V2X that is ready for deployment, including alerts prompted by a staged construction site, a demo wheelchair user in a crosswalk and a simulated emergency response from a police car.

At each of these road dangers, a signal beamed from the hazard into the cockpit of the vehicle and displayed the warning on a tablet or a built-in infotainment center, accompanied by a blip or a chime, to alert the driver.

"These are experiences we all have, where an emergency vehicle is approaching and we don't know what to do," said Jyoti Sharma, senior manager of network planning at Verizon. "If you get an alert, you have some time to react."

The U.S. Department of Transportation predicts that 12 percent of potential crash scenarios could be avoided using communication between infrastructure and vehicles. Government agencies, engineers, Internet service providers and others descended upon Ann Arbor in October to discuss and demonstrate the technology. But some details of nationwide V2X deployment still have to be settled.

Widespread V2X deployment has been technically feasible for some time. Yet decades of stalemate caused by a lack of clarity around the type of wireless transmission powering V2X has held up widespread deployment. What many of the event's speakers called a "chicken and egg" situation has also fed inaction by both departments of transportation and automakers.

Read the full story here.

— Molly Boignon

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