Hybrid V2X |
hardware and serve as templates for
statewide roll-out.
While some favor C-V2X as the
preferred medium for connected
vehicles (CVs), others remain
invested in dedicated short-range
communications (DSRC), but
Panasonic’s hardware handles both.
“These are dual-mode units, capable
of listening and talking to C-V2X and
DSRC,” explains Panasonic vice
president of smart mobility,
Chris Armstrong. “We want
to consume basic safety
messages and provide
situational awareness,
insights and real-time alerts.
It’s easy to build a layer of
abstraction and handle both
technologies, which have
the same security and
message layers and data dictionary as
they relate to our platform.” This
removes the risk for agencies in
committing to either side of the
ongoing debate, so that deployment
can proceed.
“We’re focused on the business-togovernment
DOT market,”
Armstrong continues. “We want to
support our customers with whatever
technology they believe in, rather
040 Traffic Technology International November/December 2019
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We’re focused on the business-togovernment
DOT market. We want to
support our customers with whatever technology
they believe in, rather than trying to define which
will be the winner
Chris Armstrong, vice president of smart mobility, Panasonic
Above: Lane closure
info can be shown live
on in-car sat-navs
350k The approximate number of
intersections in the USA,
controlled by some
100,000 agencies
than trying to define which will be
the winner.”
The origins of the so-called radio
wars date back two decades. “When
CVs were proposed in the late 1990s,
only DSRC was contemplated,”
explains Applied Information Inc
(AII) president, Bryan Mulligan.
“People assumed DSRC radios would
be installed in every car and
infrastructure rolled out under
government mandate.” But while
carmakers failed to embrace DSRC,
the US road ecosystem militated
against top-down deployment.
“The US has some 350,000
intersections and 10,000 agencies
operating and maintaining them,”
Mulligan continues. “A fractured
market with distributed decisionmaking
doesn’t lend itself to someone
in Washington saying, ‘Thou shalt do
this’.” As some local agencies
invested in DSRC, others began to
favor C-V2X and lack of consensus
hampered deployment. But in
January 2019, Ford announced plans
to equip all US production vehicles
with C-V2X from 2022. “If an iconic
American company with US$160
billion in annual sales chooses C-V2X,
it behoves the industry to follow
them,” says Mulligan.
Ford forges forward
“Part of the 5G family of
technologies, C-V2X enables our
delivery of smart vehicles in a smart
world,” says Ford’s CV technology
manager, Jovan Zagajac. “A Swiss
army-knife for communications, it
provides both short-range, low
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