OEM Delphi Automotive has announced that it is the first big OEM to supply vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications modules to General Motors (GM), for use in the upcoming 2017 Cadillac range. The big news for the silicon world is that Delphi has opted for NXP Semiconductors over Qualcomm, using software developed by Cohda Wireless – putting NXP’s RoadLINK chipsets into high-volume production.
The RoadLINK chipset supports IEEE 802.11p, which is a wireless standard developed specifically for short range communications in the automotive and transportation infrastructure industries. IEEE 802.11p is otherwise known as WAVE (wireless access in vehicular environments), and also as DSRC (dedicated short range communications) as part of a US Department of Transport project.
Cohda announced in April that NXP would be the exclusive licensee of its 802.11p technology and chipsets, making NXP a “one-stop shop for automotive customers.” Cohda is also NXP’s preferred partner for automotive 802.11p reference designs, which use NXP software-defined radios to ship data between cars.
802.11p defines enhancements made to the regular 802.11 standard (the protocol that governs WiFi) required to support Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) – a loose collection of global initiatives all working towards the same goal of making cars talk to their surroundings, with a licensed 5.85-5.925GHz in Europe and the hope that the US will allocate a similar part of its spectrum for its own V2V implementation – so that the same radios can be used for both versions. It was first defined in July 2010, by the 802.11p Task Group, which was set up in 2004.
The main goal for 802.11p is to address the high-speed nature of vehicular movement, which limits the amount of time that can be spent by the car talking to an access point – passing a streetlight and hub at 70mph for example. As such, the standard defines a way to communicate without needing to establish a basic service set (BSS), which lets the car and infrastructure forgo the association and authentication processes and get straight to exchanging information.
Aside from NXP, only Qualcomm has discussed an 802.11p chipset – making the win for NXP rather significant, and certainly securing the bragging rights for being first to market. Qualcomm had previously said it would integrate DSRC functionality into its automotive-focused Snapdragon SoCs earlier in the year, but despite a strong modem presence in the vehicular market, NXP seems to have got the drop on the silicon-giant.
Back in January, Cohda Wireless secured a dual investment from NXP and Cisco. The Australian company believes that V2V communication can prevent 80% of accidents on the road, and has deals with 12 European automotive manufacturers and 8 US ones to deploy its communication software in their vehicles – largely on the back of the NXP silicon.
In April, the pair joined the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium, as well as announcing the introduction of RoadLINK – the brand name for the pair’s automotive technology. The RoadLINK range currently comprises the SAF5100 software-defined radio processor, and the TEF510x dual-radio multi-band RF receiver. RoadLINK covers the 760MHz Japanese requirements, the US and European 5.9GHz standards and the WiFi and DSRC 5.8GHz specifications – hence the need for the dual-radio TEF510x.
The 802.11p capability will appear in the same cars that GM announced would be able to drive semi-autonomously – covered two weeks ago in RIoT. An intelligent self-driving car requires an ecosystem in which data is passed between vehicles to inform them about potential hazards, navigational intentions and other driving conditions. A constant stream of information between vehicles in proximity can help avoid crashes and accidents – especially if an autonomous safety system can step in to override human error and correct mistakes.
There are other benefits to be found in this connected ecosystem, largely seen in greater efficiencies in time and fuel consumption. If every car in a queue of traffic were to begin accelerating when a traffic light turned green, the blight of urban consumption could be eradicated – and the logical progression in this system is to remove traffic lights altogether (apart from pedestrian crossings), as the cars will pilot themselves through the roads safely; able to guide themselves safely using the ad-hoc mesh networks of collaborative data.
Other vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications would allow the smart city and wider road networks to gather and share data to direct traffic along the most efficient paths – or to reroute traffic in case of an accident or event. Adding other parameters to this system can also being benefits to the city as a whole, with examples such as minimizing urban traffic on days with high air pollution or prioritizing public transport over private vehicles.