The Aktiv project Cooperative Cars (CoCar) has investigated to which extent current 3G/HSPA based cellular communication technologies are suited to enable the transmission of traffic related vehicle data such as road hazard warnings in order to improve road traffic safety and efficiency.

The five project partners Daimler Ericsson Vodafone and Volkswagen all ERTICO – ITS Europe partners and MAN presented their research results after 2.5 years of cooperative research in the course of a milestone presentation.
 
Oral presentations booths and live driving demos on the MAN test area provided with an insight on how up-to-date road traffic information and time critical warnings can be transmitted by 3G/HSPA cellular systems in practice. During the live demonstration five equipped vehicles have exchanged emergency brake traffic jam tail end and emergency vehicle warnings in less than half a second using the public Vodafone 3G/HSPA network.

 

The CoCar project was initiated by Adaptive and Cooperative Technologies for Intelligent Traffic (Aktiv) a German government research initiative that includes Ericsson and 28 other partners from the automotive industry as well as transportation authorities and electronics and information and communication technologies (ICT) companies.

The study concluded that if deployed in Germany alone automobile coordination solutions could save EUR 500 million per year in costs to society such as those resulting from medical care and property damage. Costs to consumers could be kept low using special tele-data tariff rates that could be bundled in a one-time service charge.
 
More information all presentation slides and pictures from the event are on the public Aktiv-CoCar website

Presentations:

Cooperative Cars – Overview Dr. Guido Gehlen Ericsson GmbH Application Requirements Gerhard Nöcker Daimler AG Protocol and System Design Ulrich Dietz Vodafone Group R&D Simulation and Performance Sabine Sories Ericsson GmbH Commercial Feasibility Christian Birle Vodafone Group R&D Prototype and Innovation Potential Dr. Stefan Gläser Volkswagen AG

Please also visit the Ericsson global article “Connected cars are safer cars”

Link to original Article

http://www.ertico.com/milestone-presentation-of-aktiv-cocar-on-may-14th-200/

Original Publication Date: Tue 27 Jul 2010