Vodafone Italia showcases connected vehicle technologies based on 5G

Vodafone presented four new 5G projects in the automotive sector showing assisted driving solutions on the 5G network for the first time in Italy.

On the occasion of the 5G Mobility - Vodafone Conference & Experience Day, the technological developments that the new generation network will bring to vehicles and on the roads of the future were illustrated.

From the evolution of automatic emergency braking systems to the assisted driving in the overtaking phases, from the development on the 5G network of Adaptive Cruise Control systems to the sharing of information on the road ecosystem around the vehicle: the solutions presented by Vodafone show how the 5G will revolutionise the way we move and drive.

The very low latency and high reliability of the 5G guarantee the real-time reactivity of the systems installed on the vehicles, anticipating the reaction times of the motorist and increasing safety in mission-critical scenarios . The 5G ultra-wide band and communication with Vodafone's Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) infrastructure are also essential to ensure synchronism and fluidity in the real-time exchange of information and video, both between vehicles and between infrastructure and vehicle.

On the occasion of the 5G Mobility event - Vodafone Conference & Experience Day , the last mile Logistics use case (made with the Politecnico di Milano, e-Novia, Poste Italiane and Esselunga) was presented as an example for the potential applications of autonomous driving and remote control of vehicles. The low latency and very high resolution transmission of video flows guaranteed by 5G allow Yape to extricate itself in the narrow and irregular spaces of the cities reacting in real time to obstacles on the path, becoming more and more autonomous and reducing the impact of pollution and traffic.

The ‘Urban Cross Traffic Cooperative' is a solution developed by Vodafone in collaboration with FCA, Marelli, Vodafone Automotive, Pirelli, Altran and Politecnico di Milano. It leverages the V2V communications (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) and V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) to expand driver's vision range of the current security systems in order to avoid collision between vehicles that approximate to an intersection, launching visual and acoustic warning signals to the driver up to an automatic emergency braking (AEB - Automatic Emergency Breaking). In this use case, the 5G guarantees the real-time reactivity of the automatic braking systems, anticipating the reaction times of both the driver and thenormal driver assistance systems (anti-collision radar).

Solution created by Vodafone in collaboration with FCA, Marelli, Vodafone Automotive, Altran and Milan Polytechnic, ‘See Through' uses V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) communication to exchange high-definition, real-time video between vehicles, in order to extend the driver's visual radius in scenarios of obstructed visibility and prevent accidents, especially in phase overtaking. Thanks to the 5G, the driver receives the video in real time with the subjective frontal view of the first car that precedes it (the one immediately in front of the vehicle that partially blocks its view) to “see through the obstacle” and verify that the roadway is free and safe in concluding the overtaking maneuver.

‘The Highway Chauffeur developed by Vodafone in collaboration with FCA, Marelli, Vodafone Automotive, Altran, Pirelli and Politecnico di Milano, uses V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) communication to exchange position and speed information of vehicles circulating in a column on a lane in real time, in order to maintain the correct safety distance, dynamically adapting to traffic conditions , evolving and expanding the range of the current standard Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems. Thanks to this solution, it will be possible to improve traffic fluidity, reducing traffic jams, fuel consumption and emissions.

Developed by Vodafone in collaboration with FCA, Marelli, Vodafone Automotive, Pirelli, Altran, Milan Polytechnic and ENI Fuel, the ‘Intelligent Speed ​​Adaptation and Control' solution uses V2V ( Vehicle-to-Vehicle ) and I2V ( Infrastructure-to-Vehicle ) communication to share static and dynamic information on the road ecosystem around the vehicle (speed limits, temporary jobs, narrowing of roadway, dangerous curves, condition of traffic lights, etc.) or detected by other surrounding vehicles (dangerous conditions of the road surface, etc.) to dynamically adapt travel speed, in order to increase driving safety and comfort.