i3 - September/October 2017 - 25

sensor supplier to automakers and municipalities (for "smart city" implementations). "If you think about it, both DSRC and C-V2X are extensions
to specific radio platforms - either Wi-Fi or cellular. So as the Wi-Fi
standards are improving to have more bandwidth, the extensions of DSRC
are doing the same. These extensions can be carried over as Wi-Fi radios
are getting better and better." So, both DSRC and C-V2X can continue to
be built in to vehicles, Puvvala says.
"The two technologies will coexist for at least a period of time until the
transition happens," says Manuela Papadopol, director of business development at Elektrobit, a Seattle-based subsidiary of
Continental AG that supplies embedded and connected
software solutions and services to automakers for autonomous
driving, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS),
"THE CREATION
navigation,
telematics and human machine interface feaOF AN EXPENSIVE,
tures.
But,
"for
autonomous driving, we at Elektrobit defiDEDICATED
nitely
believe
that
the 5G network combined with vehicle
NETWORK UNSUPto everything - infrastructure, vehicle, pedestrian - will
PORTED BY ANY
bring a safer, more efficient travel and better driving experiCONSUMER DEVICE
ence, mainly because of the low latency and enhanced reliTECHNOLOGY
ability that 5G brings."
IS A ROAD TO
Testing across networks, devices and vehicles must be
RIDICULOUS AND
completed before any of this is possible, though, Papadopol
A WASTE OF TAXadds. Right now, "the only viable existing technology for
PAYER DOLLARS."
direct V2V is DSRC," and it does today what 5G might be
- Roger Lanctot,
able to do in five to seven years, contends Hagai Zyss, CEO
Strategy Analytics
of Autotalks, a Tier 2 provider of DSRC V2X communications chipsets, based in Kfar Netter, Israel, whose customers
include Denso and Bosch. The former incorporates
Autotalks' chipsets in a V2X platform expected to be available in 2019.
The latter is working with Autotalks to develop a motorcycle-to-car (biketo-vehicle or B2V) communications platform. Zyss also contrasts DSRC's
20-year history of technology stability with cellular's recurring obsolescence as carriers move from one network technology to another.
In the near term, automakers will integrate both DSRC and cellular
in vehicles, the former for V2V communications, says Siddhanth
Kumaramanickavel, lead research analyst for connectivity and telematics at Frost & Sullivan in India. But the firm also anticipates 5G proliferation along with self-driving cars beginning in 2023.
"The solution is not one or the other, but it's the two," playing complementary roles like Wi-Fi and 4G in cell phones today, says Javier
Gonzalvez, IEEE Standards Association representative on the IEEE 5G
Steering Committee. "The issue will be, for safety, how they will be utilized. How they coexist will have to be addressed."
Yet proponents of 5G insist it will replace DSRC in the long run, if only
for economic reasons. "It's not only a question of cost, but also a technology and product roadmap that can keep up with next generation automotive use cases," explains Nakul Duggal, vice president of product
management in the automotive business of Qualcomm Technologies Inc.,
based in San Diego, CA - a supplier of both DSRC and cellular technologies to automakers.
Given a choice between installing a new DSRC radio in a vehicle at
added expense or extending the utility of a cellular modem that is already
built-in, the answer for automakers is clearly in favor of cellular V2X,
Duggal
says. "We are talking to major automakers globally who are now
GO ONLINE:
reconsidering
their previous positions on DSRC and thinking about
Read more
doing
trials
on
cellular based V2X. This is going to be a very interesting
on 5G cars at
12 to 24 months for the auto industry."
CTA.tech/i3

Thousands of
traffic signals
now connect via
cellular technology (LTE) to
Audi's Traffic
Light Information
service, which
was launched at
CES 2016.

Look Ahead
Cellular V2X (C-V2X)
technologies such as LTE
and 5G are a wiser
path to follow in developing automotive active
safety systems.

features that don't require sensors to
maintain a "line of sight." By 2030,
Bansal predicts, it's likely that 5G will
be prevalent and that cooperative
automotive driving might be a key
aspect of self-driving cars.
Indeed, DSRC is already established
in Japan, where it has been deployed
since 2012, and by Toyota since late
2015. "But we see a great promise" for
5G, Bansal adds, especially regarding
V2V sharing of sensor data.

COEXISTENCE IS LIKELY,
BUT MAY BE TEMPORARY
In fact, Bansal says, Toyota expects that
future self-driving cars will emerge
equipped with both DSRC and 5G
wireless technologies.
"There is a preconception that DSRC
is outdated technology, which is not
true," says Ravi Puvvala, CEO of Savari
Inc., a Santa Clara, CA-based V2X
C TA . t e c h / i 3

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

http://www.elektrobit.com https://5g.ieee.org/about/ieee-5g-steering-committee https://5g.ieee.org/about/ieee-5g-steering-committee http://savari.net/ http://CTA.tech/i3 http://savari.net/ http://www.cta.tech.com

i3 - September/October 2017

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