The possibilities for communication between vehicles and everything around them — often referred to as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) — have developed along two distinct technical paths based upon the underlying technology being used: wireless local area networks (WLANs), which are standardized around the IEEE 802.11p specification, and cellular, based around LTE and 5G specifications published by 3GPP.
It's the latter type that telecommunications giant Qualcomm is reporting on in a blog post describing a recent development from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as “good news” for automakers, state departments of transportation and equipment manufacturers. In late April 2023, the FCC granted a waiver for deploying cellular V2X (C-V2X) technology on U.S. roadways.
As Qualcomm notes, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) agency reported a 16-year high for traffic fatalities in 2021, with an estimate of more than 42,000 fatalities caused by vehicle traffic crashes. The NHTSA has stated that vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) safety applications could prevent or mitigate the severity of up to 80% of non-impaired crashes. Qualcomm said industry stakeholders can now move forward with early-stage C-V2X deployments to “help to address this national safety crisis.”
The waiver permits C-V2X deployments in the dedicated upper-20 MHz portion of the 5.9 GHz band. Applications using C-V2X technology include:
- Red-light violation warning
- Traffic signal preemption
- Intersection movement assist
- Do-not-pass
Qualcomm’s commitment to supporting the transportation industry with solutions for enhancing safety and traffic efficiency extends to a course from its Wireless Academy: Introduction to C-V2X, which discusses the technology and available resources. At press time, the code CV2X23 would allow users to enroll in the one-hour course for free.
