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Joint Press Note: Automotive and telecoms sectors to launch EU project for connected and automated driving

Date

07 Jul 2016

Sections

InfoSociety
Transport
Brussels,  7  July  2016  –  Europe’s  leading  trade  associations  for  the  telecommunications  and  the automotive sectors announced today that they intend to launch a large-scale, pre-deployment project to test connected and automated driving at the EU level.
 
The foundations of the  project were  outlined  today  at a meeting in Brussels, which was hosted by Günther H. Oettinger  –  European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society. The main objective is to strengthen Europe’s leadership in connected and automated driving, by accelerating the EU-wide deployment of related key technologies.
 
Testing use cases to shape the future of driving
The industry-led project will focus on use cases and test  functionalities in three main areas: automated driving, road safety and traffic efficiency,  and  the digitalisation  of transports and logistics.  Functionsthat are being considered include high density platooning, cooperative collision avoidance, remote control parking, local-hazard warnings and traffic flow optimisation.  High  definition  maps  will  be updated with a fast connection to the internet on phone or other mobile devices. 
 
Connectivity at the core
The works, which are expected to start in 2017, will include two main phases. A first phase, to run until 2019, will feature tests on available communication technologies, such as LTE - Long-Term Evolution -(4G) technology. A second phase, to run until 2021, will be based on both 4G and 5G technologies, bearing in mind that different functionalities have different network requirements.
 
The project will also look at a series of crucial requirements to ensure that connected and automated driving results in a safer, more efficient and ultimately richer user experience. For this reason, aspectssuch as safety, cyber-security and protection of personal data, quality of service and network latency, will be prioritised and addressed during the different use cases and functionalities’ testing.
 
EU-wide ambition
The European dimension is one of the goals of this  project  and  will be  run through a consortium of European companies from both the telecoms and the automotive sector.  Use cases  will be operatedacross several EU countries  and will set the scene for future  standardisation activities.  This consortium, which will be set up later this year, will define the exact scope of the project and start talks with EU and national authorities regarding possible co-financing.
 
More specifically, trials will focus on  addressing cross-border challenges such as the lack of harmonised spectrum, seamless network handover of vehicles at borders  and  open road infrastructure data. The trials will build on existing national projects and use their infrastructure where possible.
 

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