Speculate to Communicate

Around the world, people have increasingly greater information and communication needs. Many drivers use their mobile phones, but they are not well adapted to their information needs nor to the unique automotive human machine interface (HMI). Computers, communications and software have been increasingly integrated into vehicles; nowadays cars typically contain 20-70 electronic control units or embedded microprocessors. The industry predicts high-end vehicles will soon be running up to 1 gigabyte of software. Bespoke platforms are in the offing, allowing various permutations of software to be assembled and up-graded as required. With regard to third party devices, a higher level of quality is emerging, including satellite navigation and in-car entertainment devices. Beam-in features such as Wi-Fi are currently available but many applications are not supported by these more widely used technologies. Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) initiatives aim to address this, providing a structure and process to achieve a nationwide deployment of a communication infrastructure on roadways and in all production vehicles. VII initiatives will facilitate enhanced vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communication, offering positive developments in the fields of safety, mobility and information. International VII initiatives are also believed to be on-track to provide an effective communication technology for automotive applications.