Shift Magazine - August 2021 - 16

Baidu's Apollo
robotaxis use V2X
capability at 28
intersections in
Beijing.
INTO THE LEAD
A
truism developed at the start of
the self-driving era: Cars needed
to do the hard work themselves.
Developers decided it would
be a strategic mistake to rely on information
coming from outside the vehicle.
Sensing and computing needed to be
done on board. That approach is starting
to undergo substantial change - but only
in select locations.
Enabled by advances in 5G technology,
Chinese autonomous-vehicle developers
have sprung ahead in integrating information
from roadway sensors into the decision-making
algorithms that drive autonomous
vehicles.
It's a prime example of the power of socalled
V2X, or vehicle-to-everything, communications,
in which vehicles, roadway
infrastructure and pedestrians can transmit
critical safety information among each other.
" It's fair to say that China has positioned
itself to be able to take a slightly different
technological and business approach to
the AV space, " said Nathan Picarsic, CEO
of Horizon Advisory, a consulting firm that
examines the commercial and security
implications of China's approach to global
competition. " You see much more discussion
of V2X in their AV discussions than you
16 shift * august 2021
necessarily do in U.S. experimentation. "
The broad promise of these V2X communications
has been recognized in U.S.
safety circles for nearly two decades;
transportation officials say thousands of
lives otherwise lost in traffic crashes could
be saved, regardless of whether drivers
were automated or human. But in the U.S,
V2X has languished.
Chinese companies have harnessed
that potential and deployed V2X systems,
with cellular underpinnings, tailored for AV
applications.
" When we're discussing the automotive
industry, it's one of the most global industries
and we don't usually see a difference
in a car bought in Japan, Europe or China;
it's basically the same vehicle platform, "
said Magnus Gunnarsson, head of connected-vehicle
product management
at
Ericsson. " But when it comes to highly
autonomous driving, there are differences
In China, AVs are getting help from the surrounding infrastructure
BY PETE BIGELOW
Baidu and Tsinghua
University are working to
synchronize road-condition
data in real time to reduce
the chance of collisions.
Shift Magazine - August 2021

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