Launched in October, the Shanghai Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Demonstration Program is one of 46 pilot programs under the Made in China 2025 plan, created with the goal of building up to 20,000 smart, connected vehicles by 2019. Tongji University is leading the Vehicle Communication and Network Group for this program, with NXP acting as a key partner providing V2X (vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-people, vehicle-to-infrastructure) communications solutions.

This collaboration is the next major milestone following the foundation of the NXP-Tongji University Joint Lab last year. Dedicated to developing customized connected car solutions for the Chinese market based, the joint lab utilizes NXP’s technology competencies and market experience solutions.

With urban populations constantly increasing, issues such as traffic jams, pollution and road fatalities will continue to rise concurrently. The most viable solution to these global problems is better connected vehicles and intelligent traffic infrastructure. NXP has long realized the potential of the connected car and has been behind many of the earliest field trials of V2X technology, introducing the first automotive-qualified product back in 2013, and going on to lead the V2X ecosystem with its RoadLINK technology.

NXP V2X products for series cars will hit the road next year in General Motors cars as part of Delphi’s V2X platform. Today, NXP offers a V2X chipset including software and a secure element to protect the car against attacks or data fraud and manipulation.

Secure V2X will be critical to enable widespread adoption of fully autonomous driving and to improve road safety and traffic flow by giving drivers advanced warning of upcoming hazards such as dangerous road conditions, unexpected traffic jams, approaching emergency vehicles or road works long before they enter their field of vision or become detectable by other Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) sensors (several hundred meters of range).

According to a study conducted by the US Department of Transportation, secure V2X safety functions can reduce multi-vehicle accident figures by more than 80%. V2X-capable vehicles will also be capable of receiving information from intelligent road signs and automatically recognizing the operating cycle of traffic lights.