What’s the next traffic light telling your car?
If there’s anything trending right now in the automotive industry, it’s the “connected car”. Electronics are making it possible. Over the last decade, electronics have transformed automotive engineering. 90% of all automotive innovations are enabled by electronics, and electronics expertise is now poised to make the “Internet of Things” a reality for the automotive industry – by turning cars from a simple means of transport into mobile end devices connected with and interacting with their environment. The potential payoff: a safer and more enjoyable driving experience, and improved traffic flow.
Crowdsourcing on the roads
Innovative car-to-X technology creates a crowdsourcing-type network for traffic intelligence. In this respect, car-to-X contrasts with the centralized Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) which are already in use: these deploy cellular networks and on-board units to collect information about accidents or roadworks to a central point of control and re-distribute the information to drivers. In a car-to-X scenario, the cars are active players. Instead of passively receiving data, they become active sources of near-instant information for other vehicles. If each car can transmit its current position and speed, other vehicles on the road can build a dynamic model of their environment, with data processed by the in-vehicle navigation system to enable the car to respond appropriately to events on the road. Vehicles can give each other warnings about potential hazards or congestion, and even automatically respond to changing driving conditions faster than typical human reaction times.
Cars can also receive and in some cases send data from and to traffic infrastructure. An emergency vehicle, for example, can switch traffic lights ahead to green and stop other traffic; or a traffic light could notify an approaching car how long it will stay on green – meaning the driver will not need to step on the gas to get through before the light changes. This has the potential to enhance traffic flow efficiency, save fuel, and cut CO2 emissions.
Car-to-X by NXP and Cohda
There are great efforts underway to move this technology forward. As the automotive interface company, NXP provides market-leading technology for connecting to, from and inside the car. NXP is now taking this heritage into car-to-X communication. The company has joined forces with Cohda Wireless and built a market-ready, Car-to-X radio and security solution for ITS on-board units and road-side units. The two companies are also members of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium, which aims to harmonize the network standards by which vehicles, traffic infrastructure and service providers can wirelessly exchange information.
The market-ready solution by NXP and Cohda offers an excellent basis to make car-to-X communication a reality. Combining NXP’s expertise as global leader in car entertainment semiconductors, software defined radio, high-performance, mixed-signal RF tuner and security technologies, and Cohda’s patented reception algorithms, the solution uses Cohda’s advanced IEEE 802.11p technology (the the WiFi standard designed specifically for the automotive space) and is based on NXP’s multi-standard radio reception platform. The design is cost-efficient, and automakers can flexibly program the system to comply with region-specific broadcasting standards.
Speed is the essence
The solution also resolves one of the primary issues in car-to-X communication: speed. C2C and C2I communications require fast, highly reliable data exchange between fast-moving vehicles and infrastructure in a range of conditions, from country roads to superfast German autobahns. The average WLAN chipset does not measure up in the automotive space, and nor do mobile networks, because it can take seconds, even minutes, for messages to reach their destination. This is too slow for the scenarios in which car-to-X communication is expected to work – such as an urgent brake warning for an accident round the corner, or a traffic light a few hundred meters ahead. The solution by NXP and Cohda Wireless makes it possible for cars to transmit and receive signals reliably even when moving at high speeds, also allowing cars to “see” through obstacles and around corners.
Security for the communicative car
In the Internet of Things, security is more important than ever. Increasing reliance on information from external sources – and that includes cars receiving information from their “peers” – means the benchmarks for ensuring authenticity and relevance of data must be extremely high. Without good IT protection, systems are vulnerable to attack from hackers, who can manipulate on-board electronics, endanger road users, and even bring traffic infrastructure to a standstill. Seamless encryption is required to keep the system safe. Thanks to its activities in the banking sector, encryption and security are key skills of NXP, which is able to adapt the high performance security and crypto-controller technologies it uses for applications such as bank cards and national ID. This is unique expertise which other providers cannot offer, even though security will be a primary focus of interest once car-to-X gains traction in the automotive world. From the mass of information it receives, the NXP and Cohda system can pick out the messages that are relevant to the driver’s current route, and jettison the rest. It then verifies the collected messages for authenticity, and ensures the data gets to the right controller in the system.
Getting car-to-X on the road
So what is the status at present? When can we expect traffic lights to start talking to our cars? There is visible progress. Field trials such as SPITS (Netherlands), simTD (Germany), score@ F (France) and Safety Pilot (USA) are testament to the impetus which is building for this technology, and the interest in making it work. The simTD trials in Germany are now complete, and the results, published in June, were a vote of confidence. The verdict: car-to-X is ready to take to the roads.
The trials showed that cars travelling at 200 km/h can communicate successfully over a distance of one mile – evidence of the suitability of NXP’s own digital radio technology for car-to-X communication. The technology is ready for market. However, for the crowdsourcing effect to work, it is estimated that at least 10% of all vehicles will have to be equipped with a communication module. Considering the industry interest in car-to-X communication (particularly in conjunction with ITS or telematics for location-based services), the opportunities it offers for better road safety and smart traffic management, a safer, more enjoyable and more productive travel experience might be just around the corner.
About the author: Lars Reger oversees the segments Strategy, New Business, and R&D for NXP’s global Automotive Business Unit.
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