VW presented the results from German project AKTIV

Updates on VW's research regarding C2X communications:

http://www.auto-car-shop.com/18122/vw-presents-the-results-of-the-project-aktiv/

AKTIV - Final Project Presentation 2010-06-23

June 23rd, 2010, the four-year German research project "AKTIV" came to the end with the final project presentation on 23rd and 24th of June 2010 in the testfield of TüV Rheinland, Mendig.

Being considered as the most important project at the moment in this aera, this German national project got most of the EU car manufacturers involoved and contributed to the topics from automotive safety to environment friendly traffic management.

Following are some facts of the project:
AKTIV is the acronym used for the research initiative "Adaptive and cooperative technologies for intelligent transport". AKTIV has an overall budget of €60 million, the majority of which is provided by the research partners. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is contributing €25 million, while the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing €2.1 million. The research initiative itself is divided into two main projects in which Volkswagen is heavily involved: "Assistance Systems / Active Safety" ("AS") and "Traffic Management" ("VM"). In addition to these main areas, the initiative also includes the project "Cooperative Cars" ("CoCar").

With an investment volume of €37.5 million, "AS" is the largest project within this research initiative. Besides "Integrated Lateral Assistance" ("IQF"), this project also investigates the four topics of "Active Hazard Braking" ("AGB"), "Intersection Assistance" ("KAS"), "Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety" ("SFR") and "Driver Awareness and Safety" ("FSA").

About €18 million are available in the "Traffic Management" project. In addition to other topics, Situation-Responsive Driving ("STAF") is the focus of intensive research in this project.

"The partners of AKTIV are as follows: Adam Opel GmbH, AUDI AG, AZT Automotive GmbH, BMW Group, Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Continental, Daimler AG, Ericsson, Ford Forschungszentrum Aachen GmbH, Hessian Road and Traffic Authority (HLSV), Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes - University of Applied Sciences, IBEO, ifak e.V. Magdeburg, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, PTV AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, Technische Universität Braunschweig (Braunschweig University of Technology), Technische Universität München (University of Technology, Munich), Tele Atlas Deutschland GmbH, Transver GmbH, Universität Kassel (University of Kassel), Vodafone Group R&D Germany and Volkswagen AG. Many university and research institutes as well as small and medium-sized businesses have also been subcontracted to work on the projects."

For more information about the event, please see the press release from AKTIV official web site, Ford, VW, AUDI and BMW:

Press from AKTIV;
Press from European Ford Research Center;
Press from VW;
Press from Audi;
Press from BMW.

15th ITS World Congress 2008 New York

To demonstrate the cutting edge achievements of Intelligent Transportation System technologies in improving safety and efficiency of road traffics, the 15th ITS world congress official closed five blocks of 11th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Highlights from the demonstrations:

Volkswagen Group of America showed autonomous driving vehicle with a Passat, which was jointly developed by VW's Palo Alto-based Electronics Research Lad and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Audi's demonstration concentrated on the emission reduction using connected, intelligent vehicles and environment friendly navigation, which have been developed by its Clean Air initiative.

Nissan Motor Co. displayed Signal Violation Warning, Cross Traffic Notification, Oncoming Traffic Notification, and Cooperative Intelligent Cruise Control systems, which is currently in development. These systems are developed by Nissan as part of the U.S. DOT Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) project and they use the DSRC technology for inter-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-raodside communication.

Toyota's Smart Car showed the DSRC technology for car-to-car and car-to-roadside communication can be used for pedestrian and vehicle collision avoidance, and in traffic congestion monitoring and control system.

Raytheon Company's proof-of-concept demonstration shows the ability of 5.9GHz DSRC technology in cooperative pedestrian warning system, which is announced as the first system focusing on warning the endangered pedestrian.

INRIX, a traffic information provider, announced at ITS that it's providing traffic information to DOT and other agencies in 11 states versus only one state.

The Best of ITS Awards this year went to Visteon for its Light Vehicle Integrated Vehicle Based Safety System (IVBSS), which integrates forward collision warning, road departure warning, lane change merge alerts, and blind spot detection.

DENSO exhibited its 5.9GHz DSRC wireless devices enabling the car-to-car and car-to-roadside communications. Besides, DENSO also demonstrated its gaze detection system and adaptive front lighting technologies.

Kapsch TrafficCom Inc. introduced the 5.9GHz DSRC based R155Multiband Configurable Networking Unit (MNCU) whose pre-version has been used in VII test beds in California, Michigan, and New York.

Mark IV presented its electronic toll collection system.

EarthCam, the international leader in intelligent network technology, unveiled its latest webcam advances at the congress.

Volkswagen's Car-2-Car system begins testing

A field test of Car-2-Car communication system was performed by Volkswagen.

According to the message from Motor Authority:

(The origional news can be found at http://www.motorauthority.com/volkswagens-car-2-car-system-begins-testing.html)

"

Volkswagen's new GTI, along with a Passat Variant, were used for the technical demonstration

Volkswagen is claiming to have reached an automotive milestone today as tests begin on its Car-2-Car communications system. The system aims to increase the levels of communications between cars of all makes and models eventually, and to hopefully improve road safety.

The enlistment of a number of different manufacturers means that research regarding the "Car-2-Car" communication is being conducted to define a universal standard for communication between vehicles. This will allow vehicles to communicate potential hazards and other important information to nearby vehicles. For example, if a vehicle encounters an adverse condition such as a traffic jam, fog, an icy road surface or an accident, it will transmit this information to all potentially affected vehicles in the area. Approaching traffic is alerted, allowing drivers to adjust their driving to the upcoming situation.

The tests are being conducted at Volkswagen's testing grounds in Dudehofen. Currently the test are being conducted in two Volkswagen vehicles, the Passat and the Golf, which both act as a sender, receiver and transmitter. 'Ad-hoc networks' based on wireless LAN technology are used to exchange data between the vehicles. The tests conducted simulated a variety of situations, including the presence of a motorcycle at an intersection, a stationary vehicle, a construction site and a police car in action.

Data access was provided by a 'CarGate' which creates an abstract of the vehicle data, thus allowing simple access to a multitude of information, such as road speed, engine speed, wheel speeds or status of the hazard flashers. This data can then be processed and transmitted in a useful manner to the driver, to help him or her to avoid adverse situations.

Volkswagen first mentioned Car-2-Car communication around 4 years ago, when it headed up a consortium of European manufacturers in order to make the technology a reality. In 2004, the consortium consisted of Audi, the BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Renault and Volkswagen.

Also displayed this week were similar communications-based safety systems by Nissan and General Motors. Europe's Intelligent Car Initiative is beginning to have a direct influence on these sorts of projects as it calls for the use of Information and communication technologies to reduce road accidents and ease traffic congestion."

Relataed readings:

From Vision To Reality: "Car-2-Car" Communication Put To The First Road Test;

Car-2-Car communications demonstrated by BMW, VW, Nissan and GM

Considered as the following up activities from the spectrum regulation of 30MHz ITS frequency band at 5.9GHz in EU, BMW, VW, Nissan, and GM have demonstrated their active safety systems based on vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies:

BMW announces Car-2-Car communications development

*Picture from motorauthority

The Car-2-Car Communication Consortium (C2C-CC) consisting of various European manufacturers, including BMW, Daimler, Renault, Fiat, VW, Honda, Opel, Volvo and Audi has been working on the European Car-2-Car (C2C) communication system that has standard interface agreed by all carmakers and a uniform frequency radio frequency enable the cars to communication effectively.

The recently approved the 5.9 GHz frequency band specifically for C2C communications in Europe marked a key milestone in the standardiyation process for C2C industry.

BMW's C2C system enables vehicles to communicate with other vehicles in the vicinity for the purpose of danger warning, and traffic information exchange. The communication is performed using the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, which organizes vehicles into ad-hoc wireless network on the road.

Similar system has been developed not only by the partners from C2C-CC, e.g. VW, but also by carmakers outside of the initiative, such as Nissan and General Motors. The systems have to be compatible with each other for being truely effective.

Source and picture courtesy: motorauthority

Volkswagen's Car-2-Car system begins testing


Volkswagen performed a test of its Car-2-Car communication system with a Passat and a Golf, which both use the WLAN technology for information exchange between the cars. Each vehicle can access to the car bus throught the "Car Gate" and get a abstract of car data, such as speed, wheel speeds or status of the hazard flashers, and exchange the information with adjacent vehicles in order to help drivers to aviod adverse situations.

For more information and photo courtesy: motorauthority

Related readings:
Nissan to pilot pedestrian collision avoidance system
GM develops second-generation car-to-car communications system