Photo: Volkswagen
Wolfsburg, the home city of auto giant Volkswagen, is in the process of having a stretch of one of its roads made smart, with the help of the carmaker and German conglomerate Siemens.
Part of the V2X research currently being conducted by players across the industry, the project calls for ten traffic signal systems to be fitted with the technology required for them to transmit data to approaching vehicles.
According to Volkswagen, the traffic lights will inform drivers, via the car’s onboard system, when all traffic lights in succession are on green, or on red. By doing so, unnecessary braking or accelerating might be avoided.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg, as the possibilities for the technology are practically endless and could, most of all, help improve traffic safety.
To make their point, Volkswagen and Siemens will also be equipping two crossroads in the city with radar sensors that would inform the nearby cars of incoming pedestrians or cyclists.
The tech deployed in Germany by the two companies works on WLANp. WLANp will be introduced on certain of Volkswagen's cars starting next year.
Sharing a load of traffic data collection with the existing infrastructure is one way in which carmakers try to build the connected cars of the future.
“Based on systems with artificial intelligence in traffic signal systems, intelligent control methods can provide vehicles with much more precise information on red and green phases than was previously possible,” said Manfred Fuhg, head of Siemens Mobility Germany, when announcing the project.
V2X, when fully implemented, will allow cars to alert each other of their presence, talk with traffic signs and even with the pedestrians’ devices like smartphones or tablets. The technology is also dependent of the introduction of the 5G cellular mobile communications system, which is still in development.
According to Volkswagen, the traffic lights will inform drivers, via the car’s onboard system, when all traffic lights in succession are on green, or on red. By doing so, unnecessary braking or accelerating might be avoided.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg, as the possibilities for the technology are practically endless and could, most of all, help improve traffic safety.
To make their point, Volkswagen and Siemens will also be equipping two crossroads in the city with radar sensors that would inform the nearby cars of incoming pedestrians or cyclists.
The tech deployed in Germany by the two companies works on WLANp. WLANp will be introduced on certain of Volkswagen's cars starting next year.
Sharing a load of traffic data collection with the existing infrastructure is one way in which carmakers try to build the connected cars of the future.
“Based on systems with artificial intelligence in traffic signal systems, intelligent control methods can provide vehicles with much more precise information on red and green phases than was previously possible,” said Manfred Fuhg, head of Siemens Mobility Germany, when announcing the project.
V2X, when fully implemented, will allow cars to alert each other of their presence, talk with traffic signs and even with the pedestrians’ devices like smartphones or tablets. The technology is also dependent of the introduction of the 5G cellular mobile communications system, which is still in development.
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