Bangkok--25 Jun--Continental Automotive
- Collaborative innovations to reduce traffic accident figures
- Digital shield protects pedestrians and cyclists on the roads
- Joint tests focus on 5G, V2X, mobile edge computing and artificial intelligence
Continental and Vodafone have joined forces. The telecommunications group and the technology company are announcing a new innovation-driving partnership at CeBIT. Their objective is to improve the roads safety with smart vehicle connectivity and they will be collaboratively developing innovations to protect all road users. The two partners are already working on application scenarios at Vodafone's 5G mobility lab. A digital shield for pedestrians and a traffic jam warning system are two of the focal projects. They will be implemented with 5G, cellular vehicle-to-everything (cellular V2X) and mobile edge computing.
The traffic accident rate is at its highest level ever, with 7100 incidents occurring every single day on German roads. The consequences are shocking: around 1060 injuries and nine deaths every day according to the Federal Statistical Office. Continental and Vodafone are committed to reducing the accident rate with new connectivity technologies in a collaboration to improve road safety. The two partners are testing out new concepts that will benefit drivers, pedestrians and cyclists at the 5G Mobile Lab in Aldenhoven.
The partners are optimizing the wireless network to cope with the immense data requirements of the automotive industry at the 5G Mobility Lab. Tomorrow's fully automated vehicles will generate up to one gigabyte of data every minute, some of which will be shared with other road users. 5G, the next generation of cellular network technology, will be capable of processing up to 10 gigabits of data per second and make it possible for millions of cars to communicate with each other simultaneously.
Road users can only warn each other of potential hazards if they are able to share data in real time. Cellular V2X technology makes that possible because it connects the vehicle to the cloud and facilitates information sharing between vehicles or between vehicles and other road users. Continental and Vodafone are also testing mobile edge computing technology – a technology that enables cloud computing capabilities and an IT service environment at the edge of the cellular network. This technology significantly reduces both the volume of data to be transmitted and the transmission path, and puts information processing speeds into an entirely new dimension.