Volvo has joined Europe’s CAR 2 CAR communications consortium, adding another big-name player to the group’s efforts to roll out a traffic management infrastructure allowing cars to “talk” to each other.
Alongside projects such as German’s simTD, the consortium forms part of a concerted effort by auto industry and other stakeholders to roll out the first phase of a European C2C network in 2016.
The Swedish marque’s passenger car division joined Audi, BMW Group, Daimler, Fiat, Honda, Opel, Renault and Volkswagen in the consortium in late 2011 (its own truck division has been part of the group since its inception since 2008). Now it’s upped its input with the signing of a technology sharing deal aimed at boosting the speed and efficiency with which the group comes up with common standards and protocols for so-called “intelligent transport systems”.
Such systems are complex, connecting individual vehicles both directly and indirectly via a wider traffic management infrastructure. Initially, with its abilities to take on data from individual vehicles about road conditions, process it into aggregate information and disseminate it among other vehicles, the technology’s benefits will show up in road safety.
In the company’s statement, Volvo’s head of Car-2-Car communication, Erik Israelsson, used the example of attaching transmitters to traffic lights. “The driver can be informed about what speed to maintain in order to make it through several consecutive green lights,” he said.
“[The technology] has a range of benefits such as steadier traffic flow, greater comfort for drivers, lower fuel consumption and lower emissions. The over-riding goal of this cooperation, however, is increased traffic safety."
In time, however, “car-to-car” will become “car-to-X” as the network grows to encompass other vehicles (BMW is already trialling it on motorcycles), wider traffic-flow management infrastructure, workplaces and other destinations – no one is quite sure yet how far such systems will extend. It’s some decades away, but the technology has the potential to culminate in totally autonomous vehicle fleets, public and private.
The CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium was founded in 2008 by a group of European car makers, suppliers, research organisations and other stakeholders. Its aims start with the development and activation of open-source standards and protocols for C2X systems, but extend a way further over the long term. The first phase is to function at inter-vehicle level. Among other facets, that means establishing a European-wide frequency band exclusively for C2C systems. This, it says in its mission statement, includes demonstrating technical and commercial feasibility and developing “realistic deployment strategies and business models to speed-up market penetration.” The mid-term would see the system expanding to integrate the vehicle fleet with roadside infrastructure systems and beyond. The longer term extends beyond Europe to the establishment of worldwide standards.
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