Automotive News Canada - May 2018 - 6

* MAY 2018

5G opens the
digital door to
self-driving cars

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STORIES
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ONGOING WEB COVERAGE

NAFTA
NEGOTIATIONS
NEGOTIATORS WANT A NEW DEAL BY THE END OF MAY. IF

It will enable autonomous
and connected vehicles to
move vast amounts of data,
with speed, and devices can
connect with each other

THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN, TALKS COULD BE PUSHED TO 2019.

TRUMP'S TARIFF THREAT

THE U.S. PRESIDENT HAD A CHANGE OF HEART AND
EXTENDED THE DEADLINE TO PLACE A TARIFF ON STEEL
AND ALUMINUM IMPORTS IF A NEW DEAL FOR NAFTA
CAN'T BE REACHED. TARIFFS WOULD KICK IN JUNE 1.

By ROBERT BOSTELAAR
O T TAWA C O R R E S P O N D E N T

OTTAWA - THE NEXT GREAT
thing in connectivity stands on
the lawn at Ottawa City Hall, just
metres from the downtown traffic.
For now, the cars edging by are
immune to the signals emitting
from the antenna-laden tower. But
soon they and every other nearby object could be linked through
those 5G radio waves, constantly
exchanging information.
How soon? Even the keenest
technology watchers cannot say
just when the fifth generation of
wireless technology will sweep up
cars and all else - coffeemakers,
nursery incubators, mining drills
- into the much vaunted, if awkwardly named, Internet of Things.
And don't expect the auto
industry, with its long development times and justifiable emphasis on reliability and safety, to be
an early adopter. But an eventual
5G-auto marriage seems certain.
"Virtually all of the car companies know which way the winds
are blowing, know the disruption is coming, and they're getting
ready for it," said Barrie Kirk of
the Canadian Automated Vehicles
Centre of Excellence, an Ottawa
consultancy.

PEERING AROUND OBSTACLES
It isn't just 5G's ability to move
vast amounts of data quickly that
sets it apart from previous generations, for which the largest

CITY OF MONTREAL GETS 100 NISSAN LEAFS
Technicians work on the 5G test tower outside Ottawa City Hall.
P H O T O : C O M M U N I C AT I O N S R E S E A R C H C E N T R E C A N A D A

application has been cellphone
networks. Rather than routing
all signals through towers and
switching servers, 5G devices will
be able to connect with one another directly or through small, simple reflectors.
There's a big payoff for drivers, even as cars move closer to
full autonomous capability.
"What if I could livestream
video from my car to your car
and we're separated by a huge
18-wheeler," said Jaco du Plooy,
head of technology at Ericsson
Canada. "So now you don't need
to actually be able to look through
that 18-wheeler, you can get the
video of what is happening in
front of that 18-wheeler.
"And that you can do with 5G."
The federal Communications
Research Centre set up the
Ottawa tower in 2017 to test the
higher frequencies where 5G
has the most benefits, and Bell
Canada and Telus are conducting their own trials. But the biggest boost will come through a

SIGNIFICANT COMMUNICATION ACRONYMS
* 5G: The G is for the generation of wireless technology. 1G was
analog, 2G was digital, etc. 5G promises greater speeds and data
transfer, lower latency (fewer delays) and the capacity to link multiple devices at once. For connected and autonomous vehicles, these
are all huge.
* ENCQOR: Announced in March, this $400-million government-industry partnership will build a 5G path from Waterloo, Ont., to Quebec
City. An estimated 1,000 businesses along the route - including
those working on autonomous transport - will be able to tap into
research and technology. ENCQOR stands for Evolution of Networked
Services through a Corridor in Quebec and Ontario.
* C-V2X: Cellular Vehicle to Everything is an emerging technology that
will be incorporated in 5G networks to link vehicles by shortwave signal to other cars, traffic lights, and even pedestrians and cyclists.
The wireless industry is pushing to make C-V2X the transportation
standard.
* DSRC: Dedicated Short Range Communications, adapted from Wi-Fi,
has long been the go-to system to connect vehicles and infrastructure.
The U.S. government was once poised to make DSRC mandatory
in new cars, and the system remains favoured by some automakers.
General Motors began installing DSRC in the Cadillac CTS in 2017.
The system could survive in parallel use with C-V2X.

KEY NUMBERS
Data points for 5G

* 2019: Opening of 5G corridor
across Ontario, Quebec.
* 82%: Expected 5G coverage
in Canada and the United
States by 2025.
* 700: Percentage increase in
mobile-data transfer expected in Canada between 2016
and 2021
Sources: Innovation, Science and
Economic Development Canada,
GSM Association

$400-million test project across
Ontario and Quebec, funded by
the federal and provincial governments and tech firms Ericsson,
Ciena, Thales, IBM and CGI.
"We're actually going to build
infrastructure and connectivity so it is a real corridor that
you would be travelling down, a
real 5G physical corridor," said
Ericsson's Canadian president,
Graham Obsorne.

FIRST MOVER: FORD
Ford is among the first automakers to publicly embrace 5G
technology. It's working with
Qualcomm to test car-to-object
and car-to-car communications.
Others are reportedly loyal to
the Wi-Fi-based DSRC (dedicated short range communications)
system that dates to 1999 and is in
wide use in autonomous trials and
electronic toll collection.
For Barrie Kirk, 5G's power
to capture information will be
the selling point to automakers
focused on their own next great
thing. Here will be data that can
be "harvested and monetized" as
they evolve into mobility service
providers.
"The car companies know that
the real money in the future is to
be made on the service side."
- ANC

THE BULK BUY WILL INCREASE THE CITY'S FLEET TO
more than 200 first- and second-generation Nissan Leafs. The
new vehicles will meet various needs,
but will be used most notably for
inspection services, particularly in the
building sector, and for public services in the architectural, landscaping,
urban-planning and urban-developPHOTO: NISSAN
ment sectors.
In 2005, the City of Montreal committed to reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2020 compared with its
1990 emissions.

MUNICIPALITY TOUTS ITS OWN EV REBATE

THE CITY OF LAVAL, QUE., WILL OFFER ITS RESIDENTS
a $2,000 incentive to buy electric vehicles, making it the first
Canadian municipality to do so.
An executive committee approved the draft bylaw outlining
the details of the program on April 20. Council is expected to
adopt the bylaw within the next few months.
"This is a concrete example of action taken by our administration to do its part in the fight against climate change by reducing greenhouse gases on its territory," Mayor Marc Demers said
in a statement.
The new $2,000 rebate is in addition to the $8,000 already
offered by the Quebec government.

BOLT BUG CAUSES 'PROPULSION' LOSS

GENERAL MOTORS IS ASKING OWNERS OF 2017
Chevrolet Bolt EVs in Canada and the United States to take the
vehicles to dealerships for a software
update intended to prevent a loss of
acceleration.
The "customer satisfaction campaign" stems from a calibration that
fails to detect the difference in the
state of charge among cell groups in
PHOTO: GM
the battery.
The vehicle may not receive "sufficient warning prior to a battery cell low-voltage condition, which may result in a loss of propulsion."
The new calibration software is expected to take less than an
hour to install. The repair will be done free until April 30, 2020.
After that, any applicable warranty will apply.

MAGNA'S LATEST LIDAR VENTURE

GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIER MAGNA INTERNATIONAL
and partner Innoviz Technologies will supply
BMW Group with solid-state lidar for the luxury automaker's upcoming autonomous-vehicle-production platforms. Lidar is used to
visually identify objects, animals and people
in the driving path of the vehicle.
The financial terms of the deal and the
make and model of the vehicle were not disPHOTO: BMW
closed.
Magna said the new-business contract
"is one of the first in the auto industry to include solid-state lidar
for serial production."
The supplier said the lidar will be able to support Level 4 and
Level 5 self-driving systems across multiple platforms.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - May 2018