Qualcomm: China is ahead of the U.S. in commercialization of autonomous vehicles

Qualcomm believes China’s plan to standardize the use of 5G technology in connected cars could put the country ahead of the United States in commercializing self-driving cars, Bloomberg reported.

Qualcomm senior vice president Patrick Little said that while we are still trying to figure out the best standards for long-term development in the West, China will save hundreds or even thousands of lives faster than we can. He added, "If we can adopt a common standard, we can deploy this technology faster, saving a lot of money and time."

Although China lags years behind the United States in testing robots on its roads, it is still the world's largest auto market. In October, China announced plans to use the C-V2X standard, which also reserves dedicated radio waves for connected cars.

At the same time, Qualcomm and more than 100 companies are working to push global regulators to adopt the C-V2X standard, which will be able to operate under 5G networks and enable vehicles and infrastructure to transmit real-time traffic data to each other to reduce accidents.

On the other hand, there are NXP Semiconductors, General Motors, Volkswagen and Honda Motor, which support the Wi-Fi-based DSRC technology standard.

Currently, the Trump administration has not decided which standard to support. The European Commission was originally prepared to support DSRC, but the proposal was rejected by member states in July. Japan is planning to allocate spectrum for DSRC, and South Korea intends to reserve airwaves for both standards.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute estimated last year that if the federal government chooses to support a standard this year, the United States could avoid as many as 8.1 million crashes and 44,000 deaths compared to three years without a technical standard.

It is worth mentioning that Bloomberg NEF wrote in an April report that in the next three years, the entrenched position of DSRC will hinder the adoption of C-V2X outside of China. But some analysts said that in the long run, as the United States, South Korea and Japan actively deploy 5G networks, these countries may turn to C-V2X.