Smart mobility: the connected car communicates with the infrastructure
A trial dedicated to connected and smart mobility on the A4 Turin-Milan motorway. Thanks to its fully integrated Car2X technology, the Volkswagen Golf is able to communicate directly and in real time with the motorway infrastructure and warns the driver of roadworks on the route.
Driving the transition towards the mobility of tomorrow: with this objective, Volkswagen Group Italia joined forces with ASTM, industrial Group operating in the sector of motorway management, and its technology company SINELEC, for a trial that focused on the connected car and a two-way dialogue with the infrastructure.
Extensive testing
For the first time in Italy, communication between a series car, the Volkswagen Golf, and the motorway infrastructure in open traffic conditions has been tested. The Arluno-Rho stretch of the A4 Turin-Milan motorway was specifically equipped and turned into a smart road, through the installation of specific sensors; roadworks on the motorway became the test scenario to assess the effectiveness of the communication.
The technical basis for the project was the Emeras software platform, developed by SINELEC, which guarantees integration with ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) on the road and makes possible real-time two-way interconnection between vehicles and infrastructures, collecting and aggregating the relevant information and activating the distribution of geolocalised messages based on the scenario detected.
Through the platform, and thanks to its advanced on-board technology, the Volkswagen Golf and the sensors installed along the stretch of motorway were able to exchange their respective data in real time and with great precision, alerting the driver to the presence of roadworks with a wide margin.
The Volkswagen Car2X technology
The Volkswagen Golf has the ideal requirements for this trial, thanks to its advanced, fully integrated Car2X technology, introduced as standard - for the first time in Europe - on this model and then extended to other Volkswagen Group’s vehicles. The technology is based on the Wi-Fi p wireless standard, specifically tailored to local communication between vehicles, which operates without using the mobile phone network, which means it provides blanket coverage within the limits of the system.
From a practical point of view, the most important innovation is that the system installed in the vehicle is able to exchange - and therefore send and receive - information directly with the surrounding environment, without the need for an external on-board unit. A solution that guarantees high efficiency. The Volkswagen Car2X can cover a radius of up to 800 metres in just milliseconds, exchanging information with other vehicles equipped with the same system and with sensors in the infrastructure.
The technology also uses the principle of swarm intelligence, which means that it will gradually improve as more and more vehicles use it, with obvious safety benefits.
From connected car to autonomous driving
The trial highlighted part of the potential of the connected car, which manifests itself first and foremost in terms of safety, but also in terms of environmental sustainability, thanks to the possible optimised traffic flows management and the consequent reduction in congestion, and an increasingly advanced user experience.
Digitisation, and software in particular, is one of the pillars of the NEW AUTO strategy, which is moving forward thanks to substantial investments, the integration of specific skills - with CARIAD, the Group's software company - and a focus on technological platforms, which will lead to the development of a unified operating system for the vehicles of all brands.
Smart mobility - already possible today thanks to the connected car, with a subsequent and natural evolution towards autonomous driving - will also necessarily pass through smart roads and will require the close collaboration of all players involved: car manufacturers, technology companies, infrastructure managers, institutions and research centres.
VGI | Responsible OU: VP | Creation date: article date | Class 9.1