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It has been said that the highest technology a person owns is not in their pocket, but rather it’s in their driveway. By linking that technology, the car, to 5G, automakers will unleash a revolution in connected cars that will see dramatic advances in safety, performance, efficiency, convenience, entertainment and much more.
The now-available nationwide 5G network is a game changer that will usher in a digital transformation in connected car technology. The network is in-place and ready to be tapped by innovators at Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their Tier I suppliers.
Connected Car 2.0 on the Horizon Led by 5G.
The next generation of connected cars will be stacked with technologies not imagined when automakers rolled out the first systems featuring in-car entertainment and concierge apps. Making a restaurant reservation on-the-fly or, more importantly, having the car alert first responders in the event on an airbag deployment, were revolutionary concepts in the early 2000s. But the possibilities and innovative ideas have been tempered by the strength and reliability of the broadband networks needed to remotely link the car to the world around it.
It’s a bit of an automotive role reversal in one way. OEMs have been feverishly investing to introduce new electric vehicles into the U.S. market where the customer is just beginning to learn of the advantages of the battery powered cars. But the charging station network to support EVs is woefully inadequate. The infrastructure has not caught up with the automakers’ plans. Today, the opposite is true for connected car technology. In the parlance of the “What came first, the chicken or the egg,” the answer for the next generation of connected cars is, “The egg.”
Another advantage to
Removing Roadblocks and Adding 5G Capability.
The benefits of 5G are immediately available and answer many of the challenges previously unsolvable with prior service capabilities. Lower latency is a critical feature in many functions of connected cars, which are loaded with high-speed onboard processors. But a CPU is only as good as its connection. And since the advent of telematics, cars have been held back by their connection. Similarly, another advantage to T-Mobile 5G is the power of the signal to punch through barriers and greatly reduce traditional “dead zones” such as parking structure basements or even hilly terrain.
It is well -understood that 5G enables a massive increase in data throughput, which accrues to the benefit of the end user and to the automaker and is easily marketed. But more exciting to the engineers is the network slicing property of 5G allowing the car’s CPUs to simultaneously divide bandwidth within the car to serve different functions, all of which may have different levels of priority. Think of it as the priority of the driver or of the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) to access high-resolution maps versus the priority of the kids in the second row to access video games and the priority of the V2X system to send traffic data to a processing center. With 5G network slicing protocols, these disparate needs do not have to slow each other down by sharing the same solitary pipeline – safety and infotainment won’t be on a collision course with each other. Among the enablers to future autonomous driving cars with zero or near-zero human oversight/input, 5G’s role may be as vital as lidar, radar and camera technology.
Exciting to the engineers is the network slicing property of 5G allowing the car’s CPUs to simultaneously divide bandwidth within the car to serve different functions.
Mobile edge compute (MEC) is another exciting opportunity for connected cars. By providing purpose-built mobile switching offices customized for latency-sensitive mission critical applications, a mobile network carrier like
While the future awaits, 5G will dramatically change for the better many of the connected car features car buyers today have come to expect and car owners unfortunately have become frustrated with. Features that use data outside the car will take a giant leap forward in user-friendliness and reliability including remote start, smart phone keys, navigation and voice recognition.
Data Analysis and V2X.
The ability for the OEM to collect data that can serve to improve the product immediately and over time cannot be overstated. 5G allows near real-time driveability and failure data to enable an agile continuous improvement cycle. Realtime traffic and commute analysis can serve to improve the entire automotive ecosystem by massive sharing of commute times, routes, road safety and more. Smart traffic light systems in cities capturing V2X traffic data and responding with light timing can eliminate gridlock and vastly reduce emissions.
While data collection is important to the OEM, there are few things more important than improved customer satisfaction that results from features that delight the consumer.
5G Infrastructure: We Built It.
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