In addition to the connected car system, what other sparks can 5G and cars create?

I believe many of my friends have used mobile phones and pagers. In just a few decades, mobile communication networks have ushered in an era of rapid development. From paging, phone calls, and text messages to today's ubiquitous smartphones, with one phone in hand, you can go anywhere in the world. The time for technology iteration is getting shorter and shorter. Following 4G, the 5G era has also arrived. At the same time, the automotive industry has also put forward new demands for the "new four modernizations" for future development. So, under such a wave of the times, what kind of sparks can 5G and automobiles create?

The trend of the "new four modernizations" is already irreversible. It has been proposed in the " New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" (draft for comments) issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that by 2025, the sales volume of new energy vehicles will account for about 25%, and the sales volume of new intelligent connected vehicles will account for 30%.

Under such circumstances, various car companies have accelerated the research and development of intelligent connected vehicles, among which joint research and development between OEMs and technology giants seems to have become the main theme. On the one hand, this move, backed by the strength of top giants such as Huawei, can help car companies avoid detours and complete the seamless connection between vehicles and intelligent systems as soon as possible, enhance the product strength of vehicles, and gain more initiative in the competition with competing products; on the other hand, it can reduce the research and development time of car companies, improve efficiency, and lay a solid foundation for the implementation of national policies as soon as possible.

On June 4, BYD officially announced that Han will be equipped with Huawei's 5G technology, which means that the car will integrate faster data transmission capabilities, bring more powerful vehicle networking functions, and empower the DiPilot intelligent driving assistance system.

SAIC recently released its new energy vehicle development plan, which clearly stipulates that the three-electric technology/5G/intelligent driving are the top priorities. In the explanation of 5G technology, SAIC said that at the product level, it plans to launch the world's first mass-produced 5G Internet car demonstration operation in mid-2020, when ordinary citizens will have the opportunity to experience it. SAIC will also realize the small-scale commercial operation of 5G intelligent heavy trucks in Shanghai Yangshan Deepwater Port to further improve the port's driving and operating efficiency.

The Dongfeng Fengguang ix7 5G Smart Edition will be equipped with 5G network and use the Huawei HiCar system. Cloud service has become one of its major features. The mobile phone can be used as a cloud key, and more cloud synchronization services can be provided through the "super account". With the support of OTA cloud upgrade, the system can be updated in real time. Starting with the Fengguang ix7 5G Smart Edition, Dongfeng Fengguang will continue to carry out in-depth cooperation with Huawei on "intelligence" and "electrification" projects.

On June 12, Dongfeng Sharing-VAN officially rolled off the production line. As a Level 4 5G autonomous driving car, the car is the "1.0 plus" version, with 13 functions including one-click car hailing, dynamic speed limit, roundabout passage, dynamic obstacle avoidance, multi-vehicle platooning, automatic parking, background car hailing, remote control, dispatching and monitoring. It will realize functions such as ferrying people and transporting goods in the smart park.

GAC New Energy's new SUV Aion V is equipped with Huawei's Balong 5000 5G chip and will have a 5G+V2X intelligent communication system.

As mentioned above, the integration of vehicles and 5G technology is still in its early stages, that is, it is more used in the intelligent interconnection of vehicles. In the future, the application of 5G technology will go far beyond intelligent interconnection, and there will be much room for development in vehicle-road collaboration and autonomous driving.

5G refers to the fifth generation of mobile communication system. Compared with 4G, it has extremely fast speed, large number of simultaneous connections and extremely low latency. The current development of the automotive industry has entered the "new four modernizations" stage, and intelligence is an indispensable component. For the intelligent trend of automobiles, the use of 5G, AI artificial intelligence, big data, etc. will greatly benefit the improvement of the intelligence level of automobiles, and will also bring users a more convenient and safer car experience.

Many people ask, why is it that only 5G can meet the needs of higher-level autonomous driving, but not 4G network?

The answer is of course no. The reason is that although 4G can meet our daily needs very well, it lacks the most important point. In projects such as autonomous driving, very high requirements are placed on the speed of data connections. To sum it up in three words, it is low latency. 4G can pass the response speed test, but its biggest drawback is that its performance is quite unstable. If there are too few base stations or the base station load is too large, the user's latency will increase significantly.

Once a delay occurs, it is extremely dangerous for self-driving cars. Even half a second may cause irreversible consequences.

What are the advantages of 5G?

This problem is expected to be solved after the popularization of 5G networks. First of all, its load capacity is much stronger than 4G, and network congestion will be greatly improved. Another major advantage of 5G technology is that it can automatically select priority users, give priority to self-driving cars, and ensure that car control signals can always be transmitted with a fast enough response speed, which is far beyond the reach of 4G technology.

In addition to base stations, self-driving cars need flexible data exchange capabilities between vehicles, that is, vehicles in a certain area can bypass base stations and exchange data directly, which can bring higher efficiency. Of course, this technology has already entered the in-depth research stage of car companies. For example, GM's V2V technology and Toyota's V2X are already considering the interconnection between vehicles. This kind of close-range data exchange will be popular in the era of driverless driving, but it is not yet achievable. Allowing autonomous communication between devices can greatly reduce the network pressure caused by base stations and other reasons, and greatly reduce the average delay. The slicing technology based on 5G technology is much more reliable to achieve this.

Vehicle-road collaboration needs 5G technology to support it

Of course, the vehicle-road collaboration technologies of companies such as General Motors and Toyota can not only realize data exchange between vehicles, but also reflect the deeper needs of "vehicle-connected everything", that is, the vehicle, as a new signal transmitting and collecting terminal, can be interconnected with infrastructure facilities such as roads. For example, it can communicate in real time with the status of traffic lights, whether there is congestion or traffic accidents in the surrounding area, and parking information around the navigation point to ensure that the information is updated at the first time, which is more conducive to our control of time on the road and is undoubtedly more efficient than at present.

The implementation of 5G technology in existing vehicle models will integrate faster data transmission capabilities and bring more powerful vehicle networking capabilities. While improving the convenience of vehicles based on existing technologies, it will also lay a good foundation for freeing the hands of future self-driving vehicles and giving them more work/entertainment attributes.

There is a common view in the industry now that the integration of 5G and the automotive industry may bring disruptive changes to the Internet of Vehicles and autonomous driving. Intelligent connected vehicles will play a great role in reducing the cost of automobile terminals with the help of 5G's low-latency communication, vehicle-road collaboration and cloud services, and autonomous driving will also be accelerated due to the 5G network.

At present, although many technologies and models of many car companies have begun to involve the concept of 5G, this does not mean that it has come to fruition. If we observe carefully, we will find that the relationship between 5G and the automotive industry is still in a relatively small circle, such as the use of some car machines and car networking. However, for deeper high-level driving assistance and even complete autonomous driving, or supporting technologies such as V2X vehicle-road collaboration, it is still in the stage of exploration and experimental verification. In addition, laws and regulations have not yet been perfected, basic supporting facilities are lacking, and the industry lacks coordination. To truly realize the combination of 5G technology and the automotive industry, it is still a long and arduous process.