VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has been developing its own technology to advance autonomous driving. VTT’s robot car, Marilyn, was tested to drive to a parking lot and into an open parking space using the internet of things (IoT) and navigating to avoid obstacles. Marilyn was also tested with LiDAR to see how the car would react to foggy and snowy conditions because that is one of the issues that self-driving cars will struggle with moving forward.
Now, VTT is testing another robotic car, called Martti, with a 5G network, which will allow the vehicle to detect objects with improved range and share its information with other vehicles.
VTT said connecting a 5G network to an autonomous car brings Martti one step closer to highly automated driving as solutions and services based on 5G technology will help improve overall safety.
"One of the solutions being tested now in the project is a Nokia 5G connectivity in Martti, which allows the car to send its observations to a server for analysis across a low latency 5G link,” said Matti Kutila from VTT's RobotCar Crew team. “The data can be used to adapt the car's behavior according to actual road weather conditions.”
The main benefit of integrating 5G link to autonomous vehicles is the broadband uplink which enables collection of data from multiple cars to a cloud service. New 5G services that are expected to be developed include weather services, road maintenance alerts and fast inter-vehicle transmission of 3D views. This technology will require no inputs from motorists while driving, as data can be gathered and warnings sent to users automatically.
The 5G integration is being tested with Nokia as part of its 5G Test Network that allows businesses and other partners to develop new solutions and services that enable a transition to the 5G era via improved LTE generations.
