GM to roll out V2V communications in 2017

Oct. 23, 2014
Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology will make its debut in the GM product line as early as 2017.

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology will make its debut in the GM product line as early as 2017. At the Intelligent Transport System World Congress in Detroit in September, GM CEO Mary Barra announced that V2V technology would be included in the 2017 Cadillac CTS.

The Cadillac will be the first commercially available vehicle with the technology (so far), which has been piloted and tested by a number of other manufacturers. That announcement followed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) release of an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that marks the first step toward mandating V2V in light vehicles.

"Thanks to V2V, OnStar and a full suite of active safety features, we believe the CTS will be one of the most, if not the most, intelligent production vehicles on the road," Barr said at the conference.

In addition, the semi-autonomous Super Cruise system will make its debut on an all-new 2014 Cadillac vehicle. Super Cruise combines radar, ultrasonic sensors, cameras and GPS enabling hands-off lane following, speed control and braking in certain driving scenarios. Typically it would be used on freeways, in traffic jams and on long road trips.

The V2V/V2I technology in the CTS, as well as the Super Cruise system, will be provided by Delphi using application software developed by Cohda Wireless and NXP Semiconductors' wireless chipset. V2V is based on a technology dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), which follows the IEEE 802.11p standard for wireless communications.

The V2V system uses radio signals to transmit traffic data from car to car to alert drivers of potential hazards. It can signal traffic situations that include hazards, roadwork, emergency vehicle warnings, slow-moving or stationary vehicles, traffic jams, accidents, signals and signage indicators. The technology is expected to complement existing Delphi vision and radar systems that warn drivers about potential accident risks.

"Delphi’s V2V technology goes a step further by reading radio signals sent from cars that have already detected a traffic situation," says Karsten Fels, global engineering director, infotainment and driver interface, at Delphi Automotive. "This data is then sent to other cars in the vicinity to warn their drivers and provide detailed information about the situation, such as location and duration of a construction zone."

V2V utilizes sensor information from neighboring vehicles, enabling sensor fusion, and adding visible and invisible information about the surrounding vehicles. "For an active safety system this results in a massive extension of coverage, while collecting information about what’s going on around the vehicle’s position," Fels adds.

According to the company, the systems may not be used for "convenience" warnings about speed traps, or for general communications. It's also not intended for transferring infotainment content such as audio or video streaming.

The primary focus is on accident avoidance and safety. NHTSA has previously reported that this type of V2V and V2I communication could address nearly 80 percent of crash scenarios involving non-impaired drivers.

“The ability to detect and signal to the driver of danger ahead is a significant leap toward improving driver safety and traffic management,” said Jeff Owens, chief technology officer at Delphi Automotive in the company's announcement about the technology. “This technology also strategically positions Delphi to help automakers meet potential government regulations related to V2V communications for automated driving.”

That last point is important, since the Federal government is mulling the possibility of mandating some advanced driver assistance technologies, including V2V.

V2V mandate on the way

Last year, the Department of Transportation extended its V2V and V2I pilot program in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Connected Vehicle Research Program, initiated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and spearheaded by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), involved nearly 3,000 vehicles from eight OEMs.

In August, NHTSA released a 327-page report titled Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications: Readiness of V2V Technology for Application, which outlined some of its findings from the pilot study and from other driver testing. While V2V could potentially eliminate a large number of accidents, those benefits will come at a cost per vehicle to the consumer of roughly $341 to $350 in 2020, depending on technology and implementation scenarios.

For all of this to work, a large number of vehicles need to be equipped with the technology, and the roadside infrastructure would have to be built out. "A number of other issues need to be addressed outside of the technology itself," Fels says. "These include: infrastructure that can accommodate V2V and V2X, government regulations, testing protocols or standards, legal and liability issues, cost, volumes (other vehicles with the technology) and consumer demand.  In the meantime, V2V will likely be rolled out in phases."

The Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP), a consortium of automakers, is working to address the technical challenges of V2V/V2I, while the automakers and the federal government are sorting out policy issues via the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Consortium (VIIC).

NHTSA took an initial step by releasing an advanced notice of proposed rule making about its intention to regulate V2V technology. The agency is specifically looking at left turn assist (LTA) and intersection movement assist (IMA) systems that would help drivers by alerting them to cars that are running red lights, or preventing drivers from making a left turn into oncoming traffic.

According to NHTSA's findings, just those systems alone could prevent up to 592,000 crashes and save more than 1,083 lives per year. NHTSA expects to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on V2V on light vehicles in 2016.

"NHTSA believes that no single manufacturer would have the incentive to build vehicles able to "talk" to other vehicles, if there are no other vehicles to talk to – leading to likely market failure without the creation of a mandate to induce collective action," NHTSA said in the advance notice.

In the meantime, the FCC is still considering a spectrum-sharing plan for the 5.9GHz band used by V2V solutions. There are concerns that by allowing licensed V2V systems and unlicensed cable Wi-Fi systems to share the spectrum, there could be interference or latency issues that would degrade V2V system performance. Delphi expects these problems to be addressed well in advance of widespread adoption.

"Potential issues may appear in frequency ranges used by other services," Fels says. "Regional differences in frequency band usage are a fact, but resolution is defined in the ongoing standardization efforts. For example, Germany’s toll collect system operates just below V2V frequencies. Mitigation techniques have been identified and addressed within the standards to avoid interference between both systems."

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