Autonomous Cars: European Industry

European industry efforts include the: “CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium (C2C-CC) is a nonprofit, industry driven organisation initiated by European vehicle manufacturers … further increasing road traffic safety and efficiency by means of cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) with Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication (V2V) supported by Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication (V2I). It supports the creation of European standards for communicating vehicles spanning all brands. As a key contributor the C2C-CC works in close cooperation with the European and international standardisation organisations. In cooperation with infrastructure stakeholders the C2C-CC promotes the joint deployment of cooperative ITS.”

The C2C website provides a description of their design cases.

Each vehicle broadcasts information that may be relevant using wireless ad hoc communication network in the 5.9 GHz spectrum:

Hazardous conditions, such as a slippery spot, the car can then warns the driver.

Traffic lights broadcast the topology of the intersection and the phasing of the light.

Motorcycle awareness messages:

Cooperative Awareness Messages.

Decentralized Environmental Notification Messages.

Emergency vehicle approaching:

Flashers on, crash status, or other important triggers:

Infrastructure-to-Car Communication, such as roadwork:

Self-Organizing Traffic Information System.

Wireless ad hoc communication network using 5.9 GHz spectrum.

These are all scenarios and approaches I’ve considered so I will focus on things that go beyond or are significantly different. For example, Cloudlet Computing appears to be beyond the individual messaging approach described in C2C; and 4-D Global Maps appears to be both more detailed and more permanent.