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The path to smarter mobility
The path to smarter mobility Near-term developments in V2X technology will accelerate the arrival of next-generation mobility
Words | Oliver Brandl, Kapsch TrafficCom, Austria
Very soon, we will see several decades of work come to fruition. Government agencies at all levels have had in progress a series of programs that will finally start to deliver real-world V2X/connected vehicle solutions. The result will be societal revolution because, although initial V2X-related applications will focus on improving road networks’ safety, environmental and congestion performance, the follow-ons will make their effects felt right across our future, smarter settlements.
We now have some firm dates in the diary when we can expect to see fully integrated V2X technology, as distinct from in-vehicle mock-ups and prototypes. In Europe, for instance, Volkswagen says that it will have examples on sale from 2019. Other vehicle manufacturers are in step, or else racing to catch up.
Stakeholders in agreement
With the coalescing of communication standards, stakeholders in the V2X space now have common goals to work toward, and can get on with delivering solutions that can communicate with each other at the global level.
In Europe, a catalyst has been the C-roads platform. Launched in late 2016 by the European Commission, representatives of 12 European Union (EU) Member States and industry, this is supported by €150m (US$177m) of funding. At its heart is the use of hybrid communications based on ETSI ITS-G5 wireless short-range communication and existing cellular technologies. C-roads will harmonize the EU’s existing cooperative ITS (C-ITS)/V2X pilots and provide the baseline for real-world roll-outs.
Again, 2019 is the date from which we can expect to see those wider deployments start, although progress will obviously be governed by economic and other factors.
An important European trend is the interest in how V2X can be brought further into the urban space. There are numerous proposed projects to help bring this about. Road authorities are also keen to know what and how much data will be needed to cope with the advent of autonomous vehicles. V2X technology provides a fine basis for such exploratory efforts.
The EU’s approach to V2X realization is to pump prime with funding to encourage the private sector to innovate. The USA has somewhat clearer goals. It has focused more on the urban environment, with particular interest in signal phase, timing and map data (SPAT/map) type applications intended to improve safety at intersections.
The USA is also taking a very much more structured approach to connected vehicle and infrastructure roll-out, with programs running at both the federal and state DOT levels. The levels of overall funding commitment on both sides of the Atlantic are broadly comparable, although the scale of the three major US testbeds is notable in terms of numbers of participants and
overall commitment. These are located in New York City, Tampa (Florida) and Wyoming, and there is also fast-track funding available to support further innovation at the city/municipal level.
The revolution is imminent
The ITS sector is about to undergo a major evolution, but not everything will happen at once. A relatively concise set of C-ITS/V2X day-one applications will deliver safety-related improvements via localized protocols – either ITS-G5 in Europe, or wireless access in vehicular environments (WAVE) in the USA – while comfort applications such as navigation will use wide-area, cellular technology.
How this new environment and its hugely enriched, expanded and complementing data set is brought into traffic management centers (TMCs) needs careful consideration. Upgrading all TMCs to a point of full integration will be a huge undertaking, and initially we can expect to see a multi- or dual-screen environment.
Outside the TMC, the C-ITS/V2X technology and the applications supported initially will provide a springboard for a whole new range of services. The application set will grow to number hundreds or even thousands and will provide travelers with a wide and often very niche range of location-based, tolling/payment services.
Within just a few years, we can expect most vehicles to be equipped with V2X in some form, whether via a new-build/integrated, aftermarket or smart device. This paves the way for inclusion of vulnerable road users – cyclists and pedestrians. This will expand safety and comfort applications to include individuals, not just vehicles, and it coincides nicely with the rise of the Mobility as a Service sector.
Progress toward automated driving will move us toward an environment in which the information gathered by individual vehicles’ sensors will be shared widely. Traffic managers, individual vehicles and even individual travelers will enjoy vastly increased situational awareness.
Detection systems will also evolve. For example, machine vision-related development will see greater levels of intrinsic intelligence at the roadside, with individual cameras also providing incident-detection and -management capabilities. These will be able to decide for themselves at a highly localized level whether or not to generate warnings or initiate traffic-management plans, while still communicating and coordinating with TMCs.
Near-term developments within the C-ITS/V2X environment will attract some major new players to the mobility sector. However, the established names still have a great deal to offer and it is often their roots within the earlier generations of ITS that make them the most useful potential partners.
For example, although Kapsch has grown in recent years to become a full-service ITS systems and services provider, its electronic tolling heritage and related experience of at-the-roadside communication means that it is, in many ways, ideally positioned as a V2X solutions provider.
For more than a decade, the company has been closely involved in the work to define the international standards relating to V2X. This enshrined a profound understanding of current and future needs and has resulted in a comprehensive product offer designed to support testing and development of V2X deployments, as well as in-service roadside and in-vehicle environments.
A broad and comprehensive V2X portfolio
The Kapsch V2X portfolio includes: an evaluation kit that enables OEM and Tier 1 development engineers to proof vehicle system integration, and which shortens development times and reduces risk; embedded electronic control units that are readily integrated into vehicles by OEMs; and modular roadside units that support the full range of day-one V2X use cases and which can expand to accommodate emerging applications.
An aspect of all of these products is compliance with both ETSI ITS-G5 and IEEE WAVE protocol stacks. This is important in a global market, as it enables vehicle manufacturers to build universal products that can be sold in any geographical market without modification.
Uniquely, all of these solutions – including hardware, software and enclosures – are designed and made by Kapsch in its own facilities. This involvement from development through to manufacture underlines how the company is involved at, and has an understanding of, all aspects of V2X system development and realization.
However, these are not the only advantages that Kapsch offers. The modular, expandable nature of its roadside systems means that new communications protocols can be added as necessary or required – not just V2X-related protocols, but also Bluetooth, wi-fi, and both current and future generations of cellular protocols.
This can turn Kapsch’s V2X solutions into full smart mobility platforms, capable of supporting a whole range of smart city applications. n
Below: V2X equipment from
