The importance of V2X for businesses and consumers
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Vehicle to Everything technology – or V2X – is set to become one of the most important technological advances for a range of companies in the near future.
Among the recent cutting edge technologies, V2X (vehicle-to-everything) is emerging as one of the stand-out IoT advancements of recent years. It will play a key role in the development of burgeoning smart cityscapes the world over.
V2X will become the essential component which bridges infrastructure and driver. In the future, no journey will be complete without it. Autonomous vehicles will all use some form of V2X, in order to communicate with other vehicles and road users, regardless of whether they’re on foot, or behind the wheel of the latest Tesla.
Cellular V2X (C-V2X), will provide short- and long-range transmissions between road users and infrastructure. Roadside systems, traffic control and pedestrians will all feature in this network. Each one will enable more efficient transportation and safer environments for road users. The daily commute, a trip to the supermarket or a walk around town, will all be part of the connected landscape.
V2X has a part to play in the future development of autonomous vehicles and smart cities. It will transform the way people travel and interact with other road users.
Speaking at CES 2019, Don Butler, Executive Director of Ford’s Connected Vehicle and Services, offered an example.
“Imagine a person suddenly steps into the street from out of view and your vehicle stops because it was alerted by that person’s smartphone. This is just one example of how C-V2X can connect smart vehicles to a smart world.” Butler extended an invite for automakers and governments to “join the momentum.”
V2X applications for business
As well as collision avoidance, route convenience can also have huge, positive implications. Routes with improved convenience could benefit the global transportation sector. Small businesses could also capitalise on its capabilities. Choosing routes to avoid congestion or hitting green lights all the way to a drop can save businesses time and money.
Businesses can utilise V2X for greener, cheaper, and more efficient journeys.
FedEx is one of many logistics companies to adopt an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). This system utilises V2X to conduct tests for the future efficiency of its services.
Industries which rely on transportation can use the technology’s ability to provide smarter route information. Businesses can utilise V2X for greener, cheaper, and more efficient journeys. One of the biggest draws to V2X is its capability for lower fuel consumption. This, in turn, could reduce global CO2 emissions. As well as greater efficiency, C-V2X assists in the advancement of pay-as-you-drive insurance. Consumers and businesses will save money through smart diagnostics and in-built safety features.
The full-scale application of this technology is now only a matter of time. Currently, in-vehicle deployment is in varying stages of advancement, fragmented across different automakers. The next step will be to standardise the technology for cross-platform capabilities.
Ford is among the most recent adoptees of V2X, pledging to roll out its global fleet by 2022. Businesses and consumers in China are benefitting sooner than the West. China’s advanced 5G network has taken bigger strides of late. 5G is already underway in seven of the biggest cities, with forty other smaller cities soon to follow.
In the UK there is only limited coverage from a handful of providers at this point. The biggest cities are benefitting first, with less densely populated places coming later. 2020 has been earmarked as the 5G revolution. The US and South Korea are slightly ahead with their coverage, albeit with limited range. Only small parts of a handful of the largest cities have coverage. Most of the major US-based providers have some form of 5G currently in operation.
Aside from positive societal implications, there is also money to make. Machina Research recently published a forecast. In it, they detail the potential revenue of the connected vehicle market. They estimated it to be worth over $250 billion by 2026, and C-V2X is central to this growth. It is versatile and cost-effective and is a key part of the roadmap to global 5G connectivity. This means that investment in infrastructure and modules today will be future-proof.
