Shift Magazine - August 2021 - 5

SHORT BYTES
SEMPER FI SHUTTLE DATA
5
BY C.J. MOORE
G proved to be a crucial tool
when
several
companies
deployed in April an autonomous
electric shuttle called Olli for
testing at a California military base.
In a 90-day pilot program that took
A Marine Corps base in San
Diego was the testing site
for an autonomous shuttle.
place at Marine Corps Air Station
Miramar in San Diego, system and
sensor data from the Olli test drives
was transmitted via Verizon's 5G Ultra
Wideband network. The boxy shuttle,
a brainchild of Phoenix-based ground
mobility company Local Motors, was
used to transport people and packages
around the base.
The data made its way to a collection
and storage service operated
by Robotic Research.
The military base hosts a " living
lab " reserved for developing and testing
applications that are enabled by
the fifth-generation cellular network.
The U.S. Marine Corps and
Verizon Public Sector announced
the laboratory in July 2020.
Other collaborators on the program
included U.S. Ignite, an effort by the
National Science Foundation and
other agencies that promote " the
development and deployment of
next-generation applications on ultrafast,
programmable networks. " n
A LESSON IN CONNECTIVITY
A
BY C.J. MOORE
udi wants to deploy in more areas
a technology that, among other
things, enables its vehicles to
alert drivers when they are nearing school
zones.
The luxury brand made progress on that
this year, during its initial experimental
deployment of cellular vehicle-to-everything
technology - known as C-V2X -
throughout Alpharetta, Ga., and the Fulton
County School System.
Such technology uses 4G LTE or 5G
cellular networks to transmit wireless signals
between vehicles and objects such
as traffic lights and pedestrians' phones,
allowing the vehicles to assess the environment
they are in.
For the initial deployment, Audi worked
with wireless technology giant Qualcomm
and Commsignia, a software systems
provider, to deploy C-V2X in a 2021 Audi
E-tron Sportback and a Blue Bird school
bus. Applied Information provided intelligent
roadside units that were mounted to
flashing speed limit signs in school zones.
Audi and partners deployed
C-V2X tech in the Fulton
County School System.
active
The companies found both the Blue
Bird bus and roadside units succeeded
in sending signals to the equipped Audi,
giving drivers visual warnings and audibly
signaling them to slow down.
Audi also realized that installing C-V2X
antennae on the driver's side of the bus
led to the widest possible transmission of
C-V2X messaging.
" What we [and our partners] have been
able to do is really dig into final questions
that must be answered when C-V2X begins
to appear in production vehicles, " Audi
at
spokesman Jacob Brown
told Shift in an email.
Of 130 connected traffic
signals dotting Alpharetta
and its outlying radius, 58
are equipped with C-V2X.
The city could see wider-scale
C-VX2 deployment
over the next few
years, Brown said.
A dozen C-V2X pro grams
Alpharetta's
In frastructure-Automotive
Testing Laboratory also are
testing the technology through live traffic,
hills, curves, construction and changing
seasons, Brown said.
Federal Communications Commission
regulations permit C-V2X deployment only
under experimental licenses. Brown said
that may change if the regulatory agency
adds clarity to its 2020 ruling in which it
allocated a portion of the 5.9-gigahertz
spectrum to C-V2X applications.
Audi is in discussions with potential
partners across the U.S. for new initial
deployments, Brown said. n
august 2021 * shift
5
Shift Magazine - August 2021

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