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One of the world’s largest C2X communication trials hits the road

One of the largest ever field trials of car-to-X communication (C2X) is getting underway in Germany in a trial that consists of 120 vehicles that will take to the roads of the Rhine-Main region until the end of the year. Each car has a network link to the others, as well as to the traffic infrastructure, and they will keep each other updated about the current traffic situation.
August 8, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
One of the largest ever field trials of car-to-X communication (C2X) is getting underway in Germany in a trial that consists of 120 vehicles that will take to the roads of the Rhine-Main region until the end of the year. Each car has a network link to the others, as well as to the traffic infrastructure, and they will keep each other updated about the current traffic situation.

The aim of the field trial is to test the systems’ suitability for everyday use in real-life traffic conditions. These experiments are part of the simTD research project headed by 2069 Daimler AG - the name simTD stands for ‘Safe Intelligent Mobility – test field Germany’.

“We are convinced that C2X communication is going to play an important role in the mobility of the future,” said the overall simTD project leader Dr. Christian Weiß, who is in charge of cooperating systems at Daimler Research and Advance Development.

“C2X communication allows us to detect objects and hazardous situations far beyond the immediate environment of the vehicle. This is a significant step on the path towards accident-free driving.”

Project simTD (%$Linker: External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.simtd.de stimd false http://www.simtd.de/ false false%>) is a collaboration between German car makers, automotive suppliers, communications companies, research institutes and the public sector. The project is sponsored and supported by Germany’s Federal Ministries of Economics and Technology (BMWi), Education and Research (BMBF), and Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS), as well as the Federal State of Hessen. For Daimler as a pioneer in the area of vehicle safety, C2X communication and the resulting assistance systems are of enormous importance.

Daimler is also engaged in C2X communication research in the US. At its site in Palo Alto, California, it is fitting C2X systems to vehicles and carrying out tests. Its US research enables Daimler, as a major global car maker, to address the particular requirements of the American market with regard to C2X communication, and to achieve the greatest possible level of technological harmonisation.

In addition to its participation in project simTD and its US-based research, Daimler’s strong support for C2X communication is also evident from its long-standing involvement in other projects in this area. For instance, the Group initiated pivotal research projects such as NoW (Network on Wheels) and Fleetnet, the results of which have been incorporated into the current C2X testing and its standardisation. Furthermore, Daimler is a founding member of the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium (C2C CC) and is working towards a harmonisation of this technology across Europe with the project Drive C2X.

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