▷ How will 5G change cars?

The movement of traffic will resemble an anthill

City streets will become a living organism, each road user will become a separate part, working in harmony with others. Cars will constantly maintain contact with other vehicles and surrounding infrastructure, provide information on planned directions of movement and traffic conditions, so accidents will become so rare that there will be no need for traffic lights.

Sounds great? Sergey Orlov, Ph.D., a researcher at the Physical and Technological Sciences Center (FTMC), says that to imagine the movement of future transports, all you need to do is find an anthill and see how they move easily and without interfering with each other.

“5G opens up many new possibilities for safer situations on the roads. According to most studies, accidents usually occur due to the human factor. Road accidents could be avoided if cars communicated with each other and knew where each intended to go. In a way, it would resemble an anthill,” says Dr. S. Orlov.

According to him, cars of the future will have many more sensors that will advise drivers when it is safe to change from one lane to another, they will not only warn all moving traffic about events on the road with millisecond precision, but will also take control if necessary. And when self-driving cars appear will depend above all on how quickly 5G networks develop and how quickly consumers switch to this innovation.

“However, the 5G connection will not only be important for self-driving cars, passengers will feel the benefits first and foremost within the city limits. In general, it would be as if a fiber optic Internet cable were brought to every car. Of course, the driver would also feel the benefits, because the information that the car can receive would increase,” says the scientist.

New opportunities for businesses

Dr. S. Orlovas gave an example of how data transfer will change when fifth generation communication technology is used: now it would take more than 200 days to transfer data from a Tesla driving on autopilot for a week using a 4G connection, and after switching to a 5G connection, the same amount of data will be transferred in 2 days.

The functionality of the cars currently on the market is limited precisely because the 4G connection is not sufficient to transmit data to the outside world. Therefore, decisions must be made by the autopilot, which receives instructions from the car’s equipment.

It will no longer be necessary to install complex computers in the new generation of cars that will have 5G capabilities. Thanks to the fast 5G connection, only the sensors necessary for navigation will remain, and the large-scale calculations that ensure autonomy will be carried out not in the car, but in remote data centers, the so-called cloud data stores.

Among the advantages of 5G there will not only be convenience for users, but also new opportunities for businesses. Dr. S. Orlovas predicts that new taxi services will also appear, when the taxi driver will not sit in the car, but will control it remotely, if for some reason he cannot control the vehicle himself or if he feels uncomfortable in unfamiliar areas.

Smart technology now

It is expected that a brighter breakthrough than 5G will have to wait for some time, and the opportunities of this technology will be exploited faster than ordinary users by companies actively investing in smart solutions. Automakers are already intensively preparing for the upcoming 5G communication transformation and implementing new digital solutions.

Dr. S. Orlov predicts that within 2-3 years manufacturers should solve the question of how their self-driving cars will communicate with each other. For this purpose, the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) was founded, an organization bringing together companies from different sectors, which is currently developing a communication standard that would allow the exchange of data between cars from different manufacturers.

The first test in this field in Europe took place in 2018 and cars produced by the BMW Group, Ford Motor and PSA took part. This experiment demonstrated how C-V2X technology can work successfully when the car is connected to almost the entire environment via mobile communication.

Among the car companies mentioned above, Ford is probably the most innovative company of the last year, it is already one of the most advanced in the field of digital technology and is conducting a lot of research to be superior in the future.

How will 5G change cars?

Companies looking for more efficient solutions are eager to embrace valuable innovations, and Ford is making significant improvements to commercial vehicles to make them smarter and take greater advantage of modern technology.

One of Ford’s most interesting innovations in recent years is the FordPass Connect modem, installed as standard on Ford commercial vehicles in most European markets. This system connects the car to the Internet wirelessly and allows you to use the services of various apps.

For example, when FordPass Connect is paired with the FordPass app on your smartphone, you can use a number of new advanced features: locate your car’s location, remotely lock and unlock it, monitor fuel level, mileage and tire pressure, as well as receive breakdown notifications on your mobile phone. Using such a program, you can start the car engine remotely, which is a very useful function for almost all drivers: you can heat the car interior in winter and cool it in summer.

One of the latest smart offerings of 2021. introduced the Guard Mode system earlier this year, which allows owners of Ford commercial vehicles to monitor when the vehicle is in use, when it is unlocked or started, or to remotely unlock the trunk from a smartphone. The activated system sends messages directly to your phone.

Therefore, even before the advent of 5G connectivity, the number of smart commercial vehicles on the roads is constantly increasing, and sales forecasts point to a bright future. Ford alone predicts that 1 million customers will purchase 1 million in Europe by 2023. commercial vehicles with intelligent functions.