V2X (vehicle-to-everything) is one of the most popular emerging automotive technologies, which indicates automotive industry’s one step ahead in the automated driving space. With the commercial viability of self-driving cars gaining immense attention from both academia and industry, the evolution of automotive communication from V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) to V2X communication is expected to play an important role in deciding the future of smart mobility. This article discusses the concept of V2X technology and its potential in transforming the urban mobility in the coming years.
Following the legacy of V2V, vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), vehicle-to-network (V2N), and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies, the auto tech landscape is seeing a sea change in how revolutionary can the technology be for the new-age mobility. Through the instrumentality of 5G and next-generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Internet of Things (IoT), automakers are concentrating all their efforts vis-à-vis research & development (R&D) on how better can a vehicle communicate with its surrounding.
While the entire automotive industry is moving towards e-mobility and self-driving cars, the advancements and developments in the V2X technology will play a key role in determining how far we are from the reality of smart mobility. In the coming years, the complete evolution of the tech-driven automotive industry is expected to revolve around safety of the driver, passengers, and vehicles, and this will also build the foundation for stakeholders working on the future of V2X communication features of the new-age vehicles.
What is V2X Technology?
V2X technology has its foundation in wireless module with features specifically defined for fast-paced objects and short-range communication modules. Through this technology, a radio link can be established with surrounding objects including non-line-of-sight conditions, to enables the vehicle to share with other vehicles and infrastructure the important vehicular data such as the position, location, and speed of vehicles.
The V2X paradigm can also be used to establish a link between objects on the road, including bicycles, non-motor-vehicles, motor-vehicles, as well as pedestrians, to enable collection and sharing of real-time information about the vehicle between various other V2X devices. This can ultimately, facilitate various parameters of smart mobility such as intelligent traffic control, automated driving, and auto piloting.
In order to implement the V2X technology while maintaining a high standards of quality of service, a majority of researchers are suggesting the adoption of the network slicing technology based on software defined network (SDN). With the help of SDN-based network slicing technology, manufacturers can create dedicated network slices more efficiently, which can enable them to meet the quality requirements vis-à-vis V2X for a significantly high number of connected devices.
Many researchers also recommend leveraging other advanced technologies such as automatic piloting technologies, environment reconstruction, deep learning-based image recognition, and cellular V2X technologies. Furthermore, content caching or information centric networking (ICN) tools can also be leveraged for further optimizing various aspects of V2X technology such as wireless information delivery and vehicle network routing.
While there are many challenges in the development of V2X technology-driven automobiles, the ambitions related to its applications are only limited to high speed transmission features, automated driving, and smart traffic control protocols. Various challenges such as lack of comprehensive tools and infrastructure to implement the technology and suitable structure of government policies, are hindering the widespread implementation of V2X technology in the automotive industry. Nevertheless, ongoing advancements and increasing investments in technological R&D are expected to create new avenues of growth and development for automobile manufacturers in the V2X technology landscape, and this is likely to have a paramount impact on how the future of smart mobility will look like!
