BMW Present Car-2-X Communication - Enhanced Safety via Radio Signals

Automakers are continuously searching for new ways to protect car occupants and pedestrians and BMW's new Car-2-X Communication technology perfectly supports these efforts. The so-called AMULETT project (which actually standard for the German acronym of - prepare yourself - “Active mobile accident avoidance and mitigation of accident effects through cooperative data acquisition and tracking technology”) is practically based on two devices: an on-board technology installed inside the car and a radio transponder worn by pedestrians.

The whole system relies on radio signals and helps drivers avoid accidents, especially those involving pedestrians jumping in front of the car from between two parked cars or adjacent obstacles. How? you may ask. Once the pedestrian enters the perimeter of a car, the transponder sends radio signals to the in-car system, which allows the vehicle to identify the pedestrian as a potential vulnerable road user.

The system then sends a warning to the driver and, in case he does not respond, the technology can even apply brake force as a last resort.

Obviously, wearing a transponder all the time raises questions regarding pedestrian's privacy but BMW assured us that Amulett identifies itself using a random code to prevent the system from being linked to the same transponder every time.

“In this way we ensure that the user remains anonymous – in compliance with data protection laws – without compromising the prediction of the sensor data,” explains Dr Ralph Rasshofer, AMULETT Project Manager for BMW Group Research and Technology.

“Thanks to AMULETT we will be able to draw very precise conclusions from the sensor data in future. This grants us the possibility of giving road traffic safety another significant boost – because for us, every accident victim is one too many,” adds Rasshofer.