Shift Magazine - August 2021 - 19

" Data is at the core of autonomous vehicle
evolution and that's where network
capabilities become an essential part of
"
the equation. "
Jyoti Sharma, Verizon
increase, so the network can interact
with things such as city traffic management
systems and weather and road condition
data in near real time, Sharma said.
With 5G, this could be done remotely.
said his
company's
vision-based " full
self-driving " technology does not require
a connection.
" The system is designed such that even
if you have no connectivity whatsoever
and you're in a place that you have never
been to before and no Tesla has ever been
there, the car should still be able to drive,
just like a person, " he said last fall on an
earnings call.
Sharma, on the other hand, says that
data connections are " essential. "
" Data is at the core of autonomous vehicle
evolution, and that's where network
capabilities become an essential part of the
equation, " she said.
" Though
connected
and autonomous vehicles
can
said
AVs have " the equivalent to hundreds
of laptops' worth of [computing power]
and storage on board. " A fully deployed
5G network could also provide information
an AV might need when a sensor fails.
" These additional data points are like an
additional sensor which is coming through
the network that provides redundancy of
information so that you can drive more
safely and also traffic will be more efficient, "
she said.
Another example of how 5G benefits
AVs is simplifying how the car communicates.
Some Cruise autonomous test
vehicles in San Francisco require four
LTE modems, for example, said Sam
Abuelsamid, Guidehouse Insights principal
research analyst.
The on-board computer splits the data
over
the four channels so that
it has
enough bandwidth.
" Ideally, 5G should be a simpler and
cheaper solution to that problem, if the 5G
network is reliable enough, " he said.
Adding more autonomous
vehicles
to the roads means overall computing
power and memory storage needs also
Musk: " Even if you have no connectivity ...
the car should still be able to drive. "
" Combined with the massive network
bandwidth and speed of 5G, the hardware
and software requirements are lowered
for autonomous vehicles, " she said. " This
will help lower auto manufacturer costs
to produce driverless vehicles and the
technology barriers limiting mainstream
adoption. "
THEN THERE'S TESLA
But not everyone agrees that AVs and
5G even need to go together. While no
Tesla vehicle is capable of full autonomous
driving, the Model S, since its debut
in 2012, has shipped with an always-on
Internet connection, which the electric
vehicle uses for a number of features. But
in October 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk
currently
run on 4G, 5G and
[mobile edge computing]
makes them more
viable.
Combined
with the development
of machine learning
models that can interpret
traffic and artificial
intelligence that emulates
human drivers, greater adoption can
be achieved. "
Nice said Motional anticipates that 5G
Nice: Need wider
deployment
adoption will encourage more AVs to use
the signal, like a chicken and an egg arriving
together. Deploying the technology
only in limited areas will mean it becomes
difficult to justify leveraging 5G communications
in Motional vehicles.
" However, if the infrastructure is deployed
widely enough in a geography where we
operate, we may take advantage of the benefits
of the technology where it is available
without strictly relying on it, " he said. " [And]
once the technology is ubiquitous enough
to be the new standard, we may choose
to start relying on it, and solve for a loss of
availability as an exception case. " n
august 2021 * shift 19
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Shift Magazine - August 2021

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