Verizon and Honda Test How 5G Enhances Safety for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

What you need to know: 

• Honda and Verizon are working at Mcity to explore how Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and 5G Mobile Edge Compute can ensure fast, reliable communication between road infrastructure, vehicles and pedestrians
  
  
• The companies are testing how Honda SAFE SWARM using Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and MEC can reduce the need for AI onboard each vehicle
  
  
• Initial tests include next-generation road-alerts to emergency vehicles, pedestrian crossings and red light runners
  

TORRANCE, Calif. and BASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Through their partnership with the University of Michigan’s Mcity, a test bed for connected and autonomous vehicles, Honda and Verizon are teaming up to research how new connected safety technology using 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC) could ensure fast, reliable communication between road infrastructure, vehicles and pedestrians sharing the road thus reducing collisions and saving lives. Super-fast, reliable and low-latency data transmission at the edge of the network is essential for connected vehicle safety. Verizon’s 5G and MEC platforms bring the power of the cloud closer to the vehicle, lowering latency, offering massive bandwidth, and improving communications and connectivity between drivers, other cars, traffic lights, pedestrians and emergency vehicles to improve threat detection and avoid accidents when seconds matter most. 

Since 2017, Honda has been developing a technology to realize a collision-free society called SAFE SWARM. Using Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communication, Honda SAFE SWARM enables vehicles to communicate with other road users and share key information such as location, speed, and vehicle sensor data. One limitation of this approach is the need to outfit each vehicle with onboard artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The use of 5G helps move the AI capabilities from the vehicle to the MEC, reducing the need for AI onboard each vehicle.

“Honda’s research collaboration with Verizon is an important step in our multi-year effort to develop connected vehicle safety technology to realize our vision for a collision-free society,” said Ehsan Moradi Pari, Ph.D, research group lead at Honda’s Advanced Technology Research Division. “While the research is preliminary and not intended as a product feature at this time, 5G-enabled vehicle communication and MEC have the potential to advance safety for everyone sharing the road.”