As ‘C-V2X (Cellular vehicle-to-everything)’ technology has quickly expanded within the connected car market, it has become the major trend within the market as well. C-V2X is a technology that raises the level of safety for drivers by connecting cars with LTE or 5G network.
More than 25 mobile network providers from South Korea as well as other major countries such as China, Japan, Germany, and the U.S. have established their respective testbeds for C-V2X technology and are preparing for commercialization. Relevant chipset and modules that are key components of C-V2X technology have been commercialized this year. C-V2X has become an undeniable trend within the connected car market.
◊25 global mobile network providers prepare for commercialization of C-V2X
According to ‘Global C-V2X Market Report’ issued by GSA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association), 25 mobile network providers such as Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, and NTT TOKOMO from 16 countries are preparing to commercialize C-V2X technology. Leading telecommunications providers such as SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus from South Korea, AT&T and Verizon from the U.S., China Mobile and China Unicom from China, NTT TOKOMO, KDDI, and Softbank from Japan, and Vodafone and Deutsche Telecom from Germany have started making investments into C-V2X. Multinational telecommunications companies such as Orange from France, Telefonica from Spain, Vodafone from United Kingdom, and KPN from Netherland are also working on commercializing C-V2X. SNCF (French National Railway Company) is currently developing safe train technology based on C-V2X.
Multinational telecommunications companies are working with automotive manufacturers to equip cars withC-V2X modules and to test the performance of telecommunication by establishing ultralow delay solution such as MEC (Mobile Edge Cloud).
Based on V2N (Vehicle to Network) technology that allows a car to obtain traffic and road information by communicating with a server from a telecommunications company, multinational telecommunication companies are testing V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) technology, V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure) technology, and V2P (Vehicle to Pedestrian) technology and are raising the degree of completion of such technologies.
It is expected that the C-V2X industry will be enormous as most of multinational telecommunications companies have invested into C-V2X technology.
IITP (Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation) is estimating that the number of connected cars will increase from 29 million cars in 2017 to 72 million cars in 2025. It predicts that most of connected cars will be based on C-V2X technology considering the recent trend by multinational telecommunications companies.
◊C-V2X chipset and module ready to be equipped
Preparation of relevant components before C-V2X is commercialized has been completed. 3GPP (the 3rd Generation Partnership Project) included C-V2X technical standard to ‘Release 14’ that was completed in 2017. LTE-based C-V2X chipset and modules were released two years afterwards.
Qualcomm, Huawei, and Autotalks released C-V2X chipsets that support LTE based on 3GPP standard. It is confirmed that Qualcomm’s C-V2X 9150 chipset has already been supplied to many manufacturers and is undergoing various tests.
Including LG Innotek’s ‘LAM-V500’ module, 7 multinational companies such as Huawei, ZTE, and SIMComm have already commercialized 3 modules and they are getting ready to commercialize 5 more modules.
OBU (On-Board Unit) that acts like a mainboard that controls electronic devices of a car and RSU (RoadSide Unit) that communicates with road infrastructures have also been developed as well. 12 companies related to ___ and chipset have finished developing 14 different types of C-V2X OBUs and are preparing to commercialize them. It is also confirmed that 13 companies are preparing to commercialize 16 different types of RSUs.
Technology that is currently commercialized is LTE-based C-V2X applied with 3GPP’s Release 14 standard. 5G-V2X technology will be commercialized in March of 2020. 5G-V2X is based on ultralow delay and is expected to improve the performance of automobile communication even further.
Depending on the progress of commercialization of key components, the progress of commercialization of cars applied with C-V2X will also take place without any setback. In case of Smartphones, it usually takes about 6 months between the release of a chipset and the release of a finished product equipped with the corresponding chipset. Considering the fact that it will take about 2 years before automotive manufacturers come out with cars equipped with C-V2X chipset due to safety issues, it is expected that first C-V2X-based car will make its appearance in 2021.
◊Commercialization of C-V2X pushed forward to 2021
GSA stated that Geely Auto will release world’s first vehicle applied with C-V2X technology in 2021 if everything goes according to Geely Auto’s plan. Ford is planning to apply C-V2X technology to every one of its vehicles that will be released in 2022. Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Mobis have become members of 5G Automotive Association and joined C-V2X camp officially. It is expected that multinational telecommunications companies’ infrastructures for C-V2X will operate on full-scale according to the timing of release of C-V2X-based vehicles.
“Multinational automotive manufacturers that are at the peak of the C-V2X ecosystem will start placing orders for key electronic components such as chipset after testing the technology to actual commercialized vehicles and completing a blueprint.” said a telecommunications expert. “We are hearing that top automotive manufacturers are starting to place orders and that telecommunications companies are also preparing for the construction of relevant infrastructures.”
C-V2X has formed a significant ecosystem globally. As the connected car market is finishing up necessary preparations before it launches various services, it is likely that there will be various collaboration between automotive manufacturers, telecommunications companies, and components makers.
Regulations can act as possible variables. Because C-V2X requires large-scale infrastructures on roads, the direction of government policies can act as an important element whether C-V2X technology is commercialized smoothly and whether the C-V2X industry is vitalized.
Chinese Government has already decided to construct necessary infrastructures for C-V2X while South Korea, the U.S., and EU are contemplating between C-V2X and DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications). Countries that have not made decisions on C-V2X yet are currently constructing sizeable testbeds and raising the degree of completion of C-V2X technology.
“Many countries have already started investing enormous amount of resources into C-V2X.” said a telecommunications expert. “South Korea also needs to shift the direction of its policies towards C-V2X.”
Staff Reporter Park, Jisung | jisung@etnews.com