Scania and Ericsson partner to accelerate commercial vehicle connectivity; focus on platooning
28 February 2016
Ericsson and Scania are partnering in joint research efforts to accelerate the connectivity of commercial vehicles and infrastructure. Ericsson and Scania are convinced that advances in communications technologies and future deployments of 5G networks will enable improvements in the transport of people and cargo.
New developments in LTE and future 5G standardization have created opportunities for dedicated vehicle-to-vehicle communications using the mobile network while minimizing risks of unpredictability and latency, the partners said.
Scania has pioneered platooning concepts with truck and trailer combinations driving in close formation, thereby reducing air drag and fuel consumption. Legislation at present permits trucks to drive at a safe distance from each other using common in-vehicle features such as radar and cruise control. However, an even narrower distance between trucks—further reducing fuel consumption—requires vehicle-to-vehicle communications and interconnected control systems.
Research by Ericsson and Scania has now shown that sufficiently reliable communications can be established using 4G, and future 5G, networks.
In a wider perspective, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications is an enabler for system-wide platooning in planning and organizing the formation and dissolution of platoons according to route and schedule. Trucks can thus join and leave platoons in an optimal manner.
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