Skip to main content

Ford demonstrates talking vehicles using LTE

Ford has demonstrated its latest advancements in vehicle-to-vehicle communications at the final CoCarX (Co-operative Cars Extended) research project presentation, further highlighting the viability of improving road safety and traffic management through the use of intelligent vehicles.
April 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSS278 Ford has demonstrated its latest advancements in vehicle-to-vehicle communications at the final CoCarX (Co-operative Cars Extended) research project presentation, further highlighting the viability of improving road safety and traffic management through the use of intelligent vehicles.

Ford is the first to showcase vehicle-to-vehicle communication using the new mobile communications network LTE (Long Term Evolution), which enables much faster data transmission than existing proposed systems.

The company's sophisticated vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology will play a key role in the CoCarX presentation in Düsseldorf, Germany, the culmination of a project that began in 2009 with the aim of developing the systems and infrastructure that would allow vehicles to update each other with hazard, driving condition and traffic information.

Leveraging localised radio frequencies and the latest mobile phone network technology, Ford's vehicle-to-vehicle communication system allows individual cars to broadcast messages to other vehicles - keeping them informed and allowing them to prepare for road conditions they are yet to encounter.

Two Ford S-Max vehicles demonstrated the company’s developmental vehicle-to-vehicle warning system, designed to prevent drivers being taken by surprise by rapidly developing situations and changing conditions. For example, hard braking of the lead S-Max triggers an emergency signal that is displayed inside the following S-Max within less than 100 milliseconds.

"Intelligent vehicles, able to send and receive messages in fractions of a second, could help warn drivers of dangers neither they nor their hazard monitoring safety systems could spot, be it because of the distance to the hazard or obstacles that block the view ahead, such as heavy traffic or bends in the road," says Christian Ress, connectivity technical expert, global driver assistance and active safety.

Ford believes the ability to utilise broadband communication channels such as LTE will allow large numbers of vehicles to stay in immediate contact with each other in the future, potentially reducing the frequency of accidents, aiding traffic flow and easing road congestion - in turn reducing CO2 emissions.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Siemens provides C-ITS for Austrian highways 
    November 19, 2020
    German group says agreement with Asfinag facilitates I2V and V2I connection 
  • New technologies enable increased collaboration, cooperation
    July 17, 2012
    The continued expansion of IP camera networks increases the availability of useful information. At the same time, the opportunity exists to increase inter-agency collaboration. This makes information management all the more necessary in the control room environment. But the transportation sector could do a lot to help itself by gaining a better idea up front of what and how it wants to do things, says Electrosonic's Karl Johnson.
  • Car makers test next generation connected car communications technology
    July 11, 2016
    Audi, Deutsche Telekom, Huawei, Toyota Motor Europe and other car manufacturers are currently carrying out technical field trials on testing LTE-Vehicular (LTE-V), which is seen as a potential enabler for road safety applications and traffic control services as well as emerging automated driving use. The tests, which are being carried out on the A9 motorway in Germany, with the objective of assessing the performance of LTE-V for connected vehicle communications during its standardisation process. LTE
  • Don’t drive drunk – or use a hands-free phone
    August 29, 2019
    Despite law changes, drivers’ bad habits have been creeping back in. TRL’s Dr Shaun Helman tells Adam Hill why using a phone at the wheel is just as distracting as driving after a few drinks esearch from as far back as 2002 (see box) suggests that driving while making a phone call – either hands-free or holding a handset to your ear – creates the same amount of distraction as being drunk behind the wheel. While it is notoriously hard to predict how alcohol will affect an individual (due to the speed of