Network infrastructure is key for driverless cars

Dr Kevin Curran, Senior IEEE Member and group leader for the Ambient Intelligence Research Group, believes that as we increasingly engross ourselves in cyberspace, wasting time by driving a car manually will seem ridiculous – but we need the right infrastructure if we are to make the best use of our time.

Despite recent failings of several driverless car models, many people still believe that they will supersede those driven by humans as much more can be accomplished online in the time it takes to get from A to B. When society will finally cede control to a machine is unclear, but driverless vehicles will only succeed when there is communication between vehicles and everything in its surroundings.

Ultimately, the roads beneath us will communicate with smart cars, most likely through indestructible sensors embedded within the road. They could be activated during road maintenance or in emergencies, alerting vehicles individually to slow down or stop, example. Such technological advances might put an end to the use of traffic flow cones during road-side construction.

Many uses for vehicle communications

When vehicles can communicate with their surroundings, the connectivity in smart cars will become part of the national mandatory checks (known as the MOT in the UK) to test their 4G/Wi-Fi is active and working properly. As well as travelling safely, this will enable cars to receive firmware and software updates and synchronisation over the local home network.

By uploading vehicles’ telemetry data, cities can optimise traffic management in the area around them. Therefore, ad hoc car-to-car networks, communication between vehicles and road sensors and satellites will be crucial components of future mobile networks. This could mean a significant portion of the internet will be consumed by vehicle communications.

By connecting smart cars to local parking information, weather reports and other environmental knowledge, the car will be better prepared for the journey. That means finding the closest available parking space quickly – getting vehicles off the road reduces congestion – as well as matching how it is driven to road conditions.

Car to car (C2C) technology can be used in sensors to communicate the time a trip takes, and help fleet management systems handle logistics, scheduling and routine vehicle maintenance. Enabling more efficient driving should reduce fuel costs.

To achieve scale, driverless cars need to be integrated with national intelligent transport infrastructures and systems, but this having the correct infrastructure in place is a pre-requisite.

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) will pose stricter latency and reliability requirements; only fast networks, such as 5G, can support millisecond-level latencies. We’re not far from driverless vehicles sharing our roads and one day dominating them, but first we need to invest in the infrastructure.

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