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Modern automobiles offer a bewildering array of safety features, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 42,915 people lost their lives in crashes last year. That’s a 10.5% increase from 2020 and Audi believes this is unacceptable.
That’s why the German automaker is pushing cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) adoption. They see it as a “gateway to dramatic improvements” not only in road safety but also in traffic congestion.
While the push for connected vehicles has been around for decades, with the US government designating the 5.9 GHz spectrum as a “security band”, Audi now believes we’ve reached a “tipping point” in the long journey to deployment. Officials also said that issues involving standards and specifications have largely been resolved and this should pave the way for a major step forward in vehicle-to-everything technology in the near future.
Also read: Ford looks at smartphones, Bluetooth and 5G for advanced pedestrian and cyclist detection
While we haven’t delved into the technology behind C-V2X, it is a direct link between road users and infrastructure such as traffic lights. Despite having cellular in its name, the technology does not require a 4G or 5G connection. This actually reduces the number of connections that occur 10 times per second. The technology promises anonymity as it focuses only on nearby objects and their location.
This is an incredibly short explanation, but the whole point of C-V2X technology is to enable road users and infrastructure to effectively communicate with each other and exchange relevant information. This has many advantages as drivers can be warned of nearby pedestrians and cyclists, even if they are not visible to the human eye. In the future, your car may ask traffic lights to turn green if there is no one else at the intersection.
That dream may come true, but Audi focused on the safety of cyclists at its recent C-V2X demonstration in California. A specially equipped e-tron Sportback and BMC bike riding bike with a spoke C-V2X communication module as well as a smartphone-like display. The module shares the cyclist’s area with nearby vehicles, in an effort to improve safety, as nearly 1,000 cyclists die in car crashes each year and nearly 130,000 others are injured.
The number one cause of these crashes is the driver not seeing the cyclist and this is where C-V2X technology shows great potential. In particular, it can alert drivers approaching from behind or cyclists who are hidden from view.
When exiting a parallel parking space, drivers are initially warned of approaching cyclists by a message in the instrument cluster. As the cyclist approaches, the warning will change from yellow to orange and an audible beep will sound. Similar warnings occur at intersections, and when a cyclist is approaching from behind and about to turn in front of them.
Cyclists are warned of approaching vehicles with a bike-mounted display and audible alarm. This is important because both cyclists and drivers know each other and need to be more careful.
Audi officials have indicated that they expect models based on the PPE architecture to come with C-V2X technology and that there could be as many as 60 million devices by 2030, not including vehicles that communicate with each other.
While that is a way off, the conversation is important today because the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law by President Biden last year. It will require $110 (£98.4 / €112.1) billion in additional funding to repair our roads and bridges and fund major transformation projects. Of this, $5 billion (£4.4 / €5.1) billion has been earmarked for the Safer Streets and Roads for All programme, and the Department for Transport has announced that it will “deploy advanced transport technologies such as connected intersection-based safety”. Solutions and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Advisory Speed Limit Systems” are eligible for funding.
Because of this, there is money to make America’s infrastructure smarter and safer. However, it is up to the respective government officials to act and think about the future.
Image credits: Audie and Michael Gauthier for Karscopes
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