Global automotive, ICT vendors form cross-industry 5G group

A group of automotive manufacturers and networking equipment makers have established an association to develop and drive commercial offerings for connected transportation.

Called 5G Automotive Association, it comprises Audi, BMW Group, Daimler, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, and Qualcomm. The group aims to build and test products as well as support standardisation that facilitate connected mobility and road safety requirements, such as connected automated driving and integration with smart cities and intelligent transportation.

Next-generation mobile networks now were expected to support increasing data volume and devices as well as reduce latency and ensure reliability, the group said in a statement Tuesday. It added that 5G could facilitate mission-critical communications for safer driving and improved vehicle-to-everything communications (C-V2X) and connected mobility tools.

These presented new opportunities for the automotive and ICT industries to collaborate, it said, noting that the association would look at technical and regulatory issues as well as integrate vehicle platforms with connectivity and networking features.

The new industry group would seek to develop technical and implementation frameworks, support regulatory bodies and certification processes, and jointly run development and pilot projects. It also would look at C-V2X technology requirements such as wireless connectivity, authentication, and distributed cloud architectures.

BMW's senior vice president of electronics Christoph Grote underscored the importance of 5G networks in addressing the challenges brought about by digitisation and autonomous driving.

Daimler's director of digital vehicle and mobility Sajjad Khan said: "The connected car enables us to offer our customers services, both inside and outside the vehicle, which make their daily routine tasks easier, increase comfort and safety and, thus, create considerable added value. The fundamental basis for this is a reliable and fast connectivity technology, which standards have global validity."

Huawei's president of 2012 Labs Li Yingtao added that cross-industry collaboration between the two industries would help form product roadmaps and drive certification and standardisation initiatives for autonomous driving and transport services running on 5G.

The association said it remained open to new partners and would work closely with other national and regional efforts, such as the European Connected & Automated Driving Pre-Deployment Project.