Navigating the Future of Personal Travel
The 5G rollout has already changed how people live, and it stands to revolutionize the automotive field as well. Let’s explore how 5G will impact vehicle connectivity and smart roads.
For years, connected cars have used cellular networks to facilitate real-time navigation, emergency services, and infotainment. With smartphone integration, many drivers have come to think of their vehicles as extensions of their mobile devices.
With 5G connectivity, modern connected cars can go much further, communicating with each other and the growing system of smart roads to facilitate autonomous driving functions and enhance driver safety.
The 5G Difference
Automakers have been incorporating 4G cellular technology into their vehicles for years, but the switch to 5G makes all the difference. It offers ultra-low latency levels below 1ms, a far greater connection density, and increases speed by up to 20 Gbps.
The 5G network uses higher-frequency radio waves than 4G. It has increased bandwidth but a shorter range, necessitating the switch to small-cell infrastructure.
As 5G expands, it allows real-time communication within broader networks. The ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth cellular infrastructure already enables crucial safety technology like collision avoidance, smart road and city infrastructure, and more.
V2V and V2E Communication Via 5G Networks
Part of what makes 5G so exciting is that it allows massive Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. In the automotive world, that connectivity enables both Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technologies.
Enhanced V2V connectivity allows automakers to place more sensors in each vehicle, allowing for greater data sharing within the connected cars. V2X technology expands those connections to the broader world, including smart roads and cities.
The 5G network already allows modern vehicles to communicate not just with smart roads but also with pedestrians, networks, and other devices. With increased V2X communication, connected cars with 5G capability boast improved safety and autonomous driving features.
In addition to providing the ultra-low-latency, high-speed connections required to improve safety and traffic efficiency, 5G technology allows extensive software updates to occur over the air and may enable predictive maintenance services using expanded sensors and AI algorithms in the future.
Mainstreaming Autonomous Driving
As of 2024, there are very few Level 3 self-driving cars on the roads, and most are still under development. The 5G network will play a crucial role in mainstreaming autonomous driving.
Self-driving cars must communicate in real-time with smart roads, other vehicles, and infrastructure. These autonomous vehicles are equipped with AI modules that allow them to make decisions without direct driver control.
Smart roads are key to the mainstreaming of autonomous vehicles. They can be either highways or city streets. In both cases, the roads are equipped with IoT technologies like speed and acoustic sensors, IP CCTV cameras, weather monitoring systems, and more.
Currently, fully-formed smart roads exist only as highways, and they’re few and far between. However, today’s pilot programs, designed primarily to improve road safety for manually operated vehicles, will provide infrastructure for future smart cars.
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