The Future of Connected
Vehicles
FAST FORWARD
WITH 5G
Managing Director
Mcity
These are the voices behind the effort to bring next-gen connectivity to autonomous vehicles.
Lead Scientist
Honda Research Institute
What is Mcity?
With features including potential collision and hazard warning avoidance and self-parking, the automotive industry is exploring vehicular autonomy in ways consumers can already experience. But at places such as the University of Michigan’s Mcity Test Facility, scientists and manufacturers are pushing the bleeding edge of vehicle autonomy by connecting everything from cars to traffic signals and sensors built into the road itself. Behind it is a network powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, delivering superfast next-generation connectivity for even the most data-intensive connected safety and autonomous driving applications.
Verizon Business
TJ
Fox
SVP of Industrial IoT and Automotive
On a 32-acre site at the University of Michigan’s North Campus sits a place where the frontiers of automotive computing and connectivity are being explored. Called Mcity, the facility simulates environments that the autonomous cars of tomorrow will need to navigate, and it brings together the latest in on-board and mobile network technology.
While autonomous driving is one of the flashier goals in automotive research and development, what’s more important are advances in safety and collision prevention. Technologies such as Honda SAFE SWARM™ are working toward a future with fewer crashes, built on a system in which cars and traffic signals are connected and communicating.
What is the future of autonomy?
Auto makers are constantly pushing the boundaries of connected and autonomous vehicle technology, but there’s still work to be done in creating systems that react as intelligently as human drivers. Thanks to advances in computing, communication and Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband, however, a future with far fewer collisions for autonomous transportation could be in sight.
What is the future of safety?
What is the future of safety?
DRIVERS
Greg McGuire
Ehsan Moradi Pari
INTRO
What is Mcity?
A world in which autonomous vehicles are a common presence on America’s roads might sound like science fiction, but it’s closer than you think. Thanks to the work being done at Mcity and the connected infrastructure made possible by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, this next-generation technology could soon transform the way we get ourselves and our cargo from point A to point B.
There are myriad challenges the developers of connected vehicles have to face, but one of the most prominent is testing their work under real-world conditions. Putting a still-in-development prototype on the road in a populated suburban area comes with a host of regulatory and safety challenges that makes it impractical in the development phase. But, thanks to the University of Michigan, auto manufacturers have the next-best option in Mcity.
Mcity is designed with access ramps, traffic circles, traffic signal-controlled intersections, homes, garages and even simulated wildlife, because if a connected vehicle is going to be facing something on the road, the team behind Mcity wants it represented at their site. It’s one of the reasons major auto manufacturers such as Honda have chosen Mcity as a proving ground for their research and development.
Mcity is equipped with sensors that track all aspects of a vehicle's speed and motion. And since the autonomous cars and trucks of the future will need to talk both to each other and to the surrounding environment, Mcity’s infrastructure needs to be as connected as the cars navigating it. Backing it all up is Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, courtesy of Mcity partner Verizon. With the power of 5G, the Mcity facility can deliver the sort of connectivity that makes true next-generation vehicular autonomy possible.
Working toward a collision-free future
What is the future of autonomy?
FEATURE
Built for the future
FEATURE
Here’s how it’s happening, as told by those bringing the next evolution in connected driving to life.
Mcity: where the rubber meets the road for connected vehicles
I think what most excites me about these technologies is the ability to really have a much safer environment, a much more efficient environment, even beyond a 5,000-pound vehicle with a family in it. The technologies around us that are proliferating will actually change the way that we operate in a society.” — TJ Fox
Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and the future of connected cars
From seat belts to airbags and reinforced frames, engineers at the world’s auto manufacturers have been working for over a century to make cars safer. And now, thanks to advances in computing, the new frontiers in automotive safety are about preventing accidents entirely.
On-board sensors and computing are an element of next-gen safety technology, but they’re only one piece of the puzzle. In order to be truly effective, these tools need to be able to share information with those in other cars as well as with cameras, sensors, infrastructure and computers in the environment around them. This sort of "Vehicle to Everything" — also known as V2X — communication is central to systems like Honda SAFE SWARM, which has been in development since 2017.
Near-real time networking is critical to SAFE SWARM’s functionality. It allows a wide array of devices to communicate with the kind of speed necessary to facilitate split-second decision-making, while also providing developers with the opportunity to lighten the compute load for in-vehicle systems, shifting it instead to servers at the edge of mobile networks. With edge computing and 5G Ultra Wideband, the vision of a safer mobility experience is closer than ever to being realized.
Advances in connectivity — along with innovative thinking on the part of those working toward vehicle autonomy — has led to an environment in which the typical cars and trucks we think of when we think of wheeled transportation won’t be the only self-guided vehicles on the road.
For example, automated food delivery drones are already being tested, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ways in which this technology can transform day-to-day transport. With both infrastructure and vehicles exchanging data over Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, we’re moving closer, every day, to a fully connected future.
Autonomous cars and so much more
FEATURE
24
What is Mixhalo?
LIVE audio
reimagined
FEATURE
Edge computing on the cutting edge of automotive safety
Mcity is really meant to test the future brains of transportation systems, not the traditional bones and muscles that a normal proving ground would test. We're thinking about how these vehicles, sensors and tools work together as a system.”
From a safety perspective, there are cameras at an intersection that can detect a pedestrian and communicate with the car in near-real time in a 5G environment, to tell that car there’s something there or to stop that vehicle.
We’re approaching autonomy by focusing on the part infrastructure will play in ensuring that all the road users are connected and able to communicate with each other.
