Driving with a Sixth Sense
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Connected car
- Up to 68% of accidents could be avoided with 5G technology behind the wheel
- SEAT engineer and Telefónica discuss the latest 5G developments
- 5G connectivity provides drivers with predicted information for faster, better decision making
- Cameras, sensors and beacons as part of city infrastructure communicate with the connected car
Imagine being able to see into the future to prevent possible conflicts before they occur. The 5G connected car will let drivers do just that.
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- Gathering data from the city: “Before, the car only gave information the driver could see. Now, thanks to 5G technology, the car will get information from the city before the driver sees it,” says SEAT engineer, César de Marco. The 5G connected car can detect pedestrians, cyclists and static obstacles. In this way, drivers will get predictive information to make faster, better decisions.
- Cameras, sensors and beacons: Hardware like infrared cameras, sensors and beacons are embedded into the infrastructure to communicate with this car. In the case of pedestrians, cameras connected to traffic lights detect the pedestrians. Information is sent to the 5G network, then back to the vehicle to alert the driver.
“For cyclists, we used additional techniques because they are moving a bit faster. We added electronics to the bike, and small electronic markers in the city infrastructure,” according to de Marco.
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- - Faster than humanly possible: One of the characteristics of 5G technology is the low latency, or the time it takes for a network to respond to commands. Humans, for example, respond to touch, sight or smell in about 150 milliseconds. “With 5G connectivity, the reaction time from when the car detects an obstacle to when it is communicated would be about 5 milliseconds,” says de Marco.
- Networks, servers and big data: Cars fitted with 5G technology are only as successful as the environment they operate in. Local administrations and telecommunication companies must put the infrastructure in place first. “We are upgrading our system networks and deploying our servers closer to the end user,” says Telefónica spokesperson Leticia López. “And we are using a traffic management application that gives real time data.”
- Technology that saves: Pedestrians, cyclists and motor bike drivers account for almost half of all traffic related fatalities in Spain. Now, with 5G technology on the horizon, accidents could be reduced by 68%, according to international 5G automotive associations.
What is 5G?
It means the 5th generation of network connectivity. In the case of 3G, users had a high-speed bandwidth to connect to the internet for the first time from their mobile phones. When 4G came along, it was 500 times faster and allowed for consumption of online video and larger files. Now, with 5G expected to be about 1,000 times faster than 4G, we will see the Internet of Things finally take shape.
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SEAT is the only company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets cars in Spain. A member of the Volkswagen Group, the multinational has its headquarters in Martorell (Barcelona), exporting 80% of its vehicles, and is present in over 80 countries on all five continents. In 2018, SEAT sold 517,600 cars, the highest amount in the brand’s 68 years of history.
The SEAT Group employs more than 15,000 professionals and has three production centres – Barcelona, El Prat de Llobregat and Martorell, where it manufactures the highly successful Ibiza, Arona and Leon. Additionally, the company produces the Ateca and the Toledo in the Czech Republic, the Tarraco in Germany, the Alhambra in Portugal and the Mii in Slovakia.
The multinational has a Technical Centre, which operates as a knowledge hub that brings together 1,000 engineers who are focussed on developing innovation for Spain’s largest industrial investor in R&D. SEAT already features the latest connectivity technology in its vehicle range and is currently engaged in the company’s global digitalisation process to promote the mobility of the future.
