C-V2X: A Connectivity Turning Point

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission finally released the connectivity kraken – authorizing waivers for car makers and state transportation departments to begin implementing and deploying C-V2X technology.?Good thing, too, considering the billions of dollars earmarked in the Infrastructure Act for C-V2X applications.

They were practically dancing in the aisles at the ITS America Conference and Expo in Dallas.?The announcement was punctuated a week later by Qualcomm’s announcement of its intention to acquire Israel-based C-V2X fabless semiconductor supplier Autotalks.

(The timing was fortuitous – coming on the eve of the week-long Ecomotion event in Tel Aviv next week.?(Register for Ecomotion here (Discount code: EMW23_TI): https://ecomotion-2023.forms-wizard.biz/ ) )?Autotalks becomes but the latest Israeli tech company to receive a sparkling exit - estimated at $350M.

But the folks exhibiting the greatest excitement at the ITS America Conference – and everywhere else - are actually peddling regular old LTE connectivity for vehicle-to-network-to vehicle communications.?Haas Alert executives were portrayed celebrating in the ITS International show daily (above), but their enthusiasm is widely shared.

Applied Information already has multiple active trial waiver deployments in the market for C-V2X but has been adding regular old LTE connectivity to transportation infrastructure for years.?Israel-based Notraffic is yet another cellular advocate in transportation.

Haas Alert is well on its way to enabling inter-vehicle communications – between emergency vehicles and passenger cars – with 2M Stellantis cars locked and loaded with the company’s Safety Cloud technology for the Emergency Vehicle Alert System (EVAS).?Appropriately equipped Stellantis vehicles will receive alerts regarding the proximity and direction of travel of emergency vehicles in those cities where those vehicles are equipped with HaaS Alert beacons.

Applied Information is alerting drivers to the proximity of school zones, school buses, and traffic lights via cellular technology.?The company may soon see its traffic light pre-emption tech being taken up by emergency responders and school districts in coming years.

The onset of C-V2X technology has essentially opened the door to multi-modal connectivity in cars – with the objective of increasing the efficiency of traffic and reducing collisions.?Car makers are no longer simply thinking about connecting cars for crash response or stolen vehicle traffic, they are now thinking about why they are connecting cars and how they are connecting cars.

New cars will increasingly be equipped with 5G, C-V2X, and Wi-Fi communications.?The 5G connectivity will support the most urgent communications to and from the vehicle and provide transport for entertainment and informational content.?The C-V2X connections will enable inter-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications.?And Wi-Fi will allow for side-loading of data to and from the vehicle.

Veniam, now owned by Israel-based Nexar, was an early promoter of the concept of multi-modal vehicle communications.?With vehicle data exchanges ramping up into the gigabit range/month auto makers are suddenly taking the concept more seriously.?This is also why the industry is preparing for 5G Release 17 non-terrestrial network communications. Car makers simply cannot always rely on cellular communications alone.

The key change is that the onset of 5G introduced cellular communications into safety-centric applications.?This, too, contributed to the industry turning point.?Advanced safety systems are increasingly reliant on over-the-air software updates and real-time inputs based on cellular communications.

There is good reason for excitement and glee.?5G and C-V2X in cars is changing the perceived value of cellular connectivity.?The purported $350M price tag for Autotalks speaks to this enhanced value perception.?(Of course, it didn’t hurt that Autotalks has an existing multi-year contract to deliver dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) tech to Volkswagen.)

The FCC has lit the fuse and the fireworks have already commenced.?The arrival of C-V2X will permanently alter the connected car driving experience and maybe, just maybe, save thousands of lives in the process.

Ed. Note:

We'll be talking about multimodal connectivity at Smart Cities USA tomorrow in Denver. See you there?