Sep 11, 2015

  • Easy integration in the existing vehicle architecture using the "Vehicle-to-X (V2X) OneBox" from Continental
  • In North America, legislators are working on making V2X mandatory in new vehicles
  • V2X communication increases safety, efficiency and comfort on the roads

Frankfurt am Main, September 10, 2015. At the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA), the international automotive supplier Continental will be presenting a Left-turn Assist based on Vehicle-to-X (V2X) technology in the outdoor area of the New Mobility World. This technology issues an audible and visual warning to alert the driver of an impending collision due to the presence of a hidden approaching vehicle during a left-turn maneuver. This is a well-known hazard that occurs most frequently during left-turn maneuvers at intersections. Automatic intervention is only triggered if the driver fails to observe the warning despite the increasing probability of an accident.

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Other functions that Continental offers with its V2X technology include the Electronic Brake Light and the Roadworks Assistant. The Electronic Brake Light contributes to forward-looking driving by informing the driver that a vehicle further ahead in traffic is braking, even if it cannot be seen yet. This information can be very valuable, in particular on winding country roads. If a vehicle is approaching roadworks, the Roadworks Assistant supplies information about their location, length and also recommends the lane the driver should choose to ensure optimum traffic flow.

A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2014 clearly shows that V2X functions improve road safety and prevent accidents. In this way, V2X communication is able to save approximately 1,100 lives and to prevent up to 600,000 accidents in the US every year. These figures are the reason why legislators in North America are already working on making the introduction of V2X mandatory in new vehicles. It is expected that the new law will take effect within the next two years.

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V2X communication therefore represents another important contribution on the way to automated driving and the realization of "Vision Zero" - the vision of accident-free driving. "Our aim is to reduce the number of accidents significantly or to eliminate them altogether. With V2X, it is possible not just to 'see around the corner', so to speak, but also to detect hazards early on, before they are visually perceived. By issuing appropriate warnings, through cooperative assistance, and right up to an intervention by the vehicle, we want to eliminate these hazards, before the driver notices them or the sensors detect them," explained Dr. Bernhard Klumpp, Head of the Passive Safety & Sensorics Division at Continental. "Thanks to our many years of expertise and experience in this field, we provide a versatile system-oriented approach to the implementation of cooperative safety, based on the use of V2X technology."

Vehicle-to-X communication offers many advantages

At the technical level, with its so-called V2X OneBox, which contains all the components required for V2X communication, Continental provides a versatile, efficient product solution for this vehicle safety system, which implements ad-hoc communication, namely real-time direct communication between vehicles without a fixed network infrastructure. The OneBox can easily be integrated in the existing vehicle architecture and is based on a modular system, which is already compatible with next-generation applications, such as the initiation of emergency braking maneuvers instead of warnings. The direct communication between road users via an ad-hoc network makes V2X communication very different from interaction via a back-end. V2X communication requires neither a mobile phone network, nor a mobile network operator and is therefore independent of network availability, an essential prerequisite for safety-related technologies.

Precise vehicle localization with M2XPro

One important prerequisite for V2X is the ability to determine the vehicle's position as accurately as possible relative to a precise time base. Continental's Motion Information to X Provider (M2XPro) is an intelligent localization sensor which merges GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) information with the driving dynamics sensors (steering angle, inertial and wheel speed sensors) present in the vehicle and delivers a robust, extremely precise calculation of the vehicle's current position.

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An integrity measurement supplies status information relating to the system state and data quality, information that is essential for the system's self-monitoring functions. Communication between road users is conducted via short-range radio over distances of 300-500 meters based on the ITS-G5 standard (in North America: Dedicated Short Range Communication IEEE 802.11p; in Europe: ETSI ITS-G5). This makes it possible to exchange safety-related information, such as vehicle position and dynamics or braking operations, with other nearby vehicles and the infrastructure directly in near-real time. The V2X systems of all vehicle manufacturers are interoperable. Data safety and anonymity are ensured by the system architecture. Advantage: The information is not stored and is not attributable to any particular user.

Milestone simTD

Continental was a partner in the simTD research project (Safe Intelligent Mobility - test field Germany) which ended in mid-2013. Realistic traffic scenarios were examined in an extensive test field infrastructure around Frankfurt am Main and the political, economic and technological constraints influencing the successful introduction of Vehicle-to-X networking were delineated. Continental was responsible for system integration and successfully demonstrated this during a six-month fleet test involving 120 test vehicles. As a member of the Car2Car Communication Consortium, Continental has joined with numerous vehicle manufacturers and suppliers in expressing its willingness to introduce a V2X system in the near future.

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