Sept. 3, 2019—A communications technology could soon allow vehicles to all communicate with one another, as well as with infrastructure like traffic lights. The new cellular network, 5G, is the key to handling all that data transfer.
CNet reports that cars already broadcast their speed and direction. That's how they get GPS directions and other features, like displaying a street's speed limit on your dash. But through a technology called C-V2X and 5G networks, vehicles will be able to do more. From the article:
They'll also be able to negotiate taking turns at stop signs or merging into lanes, the digital equivalent of human drivers making eye contact. By chatting with traffic signals, your car will be able to synchronize a trip with green lights. Vehicles could also talk with each other to create a platoon to squeeze more cars on the road and improve fuel economy.
C-V2X loosely means cellular communication for vehicles to everything, because the communication could also happen with traffic lights, roadside markers in addition to other vehicles.
A consortium of telecommunications companies and automakers have joined to develop the framework. With the newest release of C-V2X, paired with a fairly powerful network, multiple vehicles could coordinate to negotiate turns or get through an intersection, according to the article. It's also a way for cars ahead in traffic to let cars farther behind know what conditions will be like ahead. Then all the cars would adjust to make traffic flow more efficiently.
