Shift Magazine - August 2021 - 6

SHORT BYTES
GM PLOTS PATH TO 5G
G
BY HANNAH LUTZ
eneral Motors is joining the march
toward 5G, a key step for establishing
the foundation for enhanced
autonomous-driving technology.
GM and AT&T have partnered to equip
GM vehicles with 5G cellular connectivity,
which also includes Microsoft services,
starting with the 2024 model year.
Previous model-year
vehicles will
be
able to upgrade to 5G via an over-the-air
update, GM said.
The 5G network and Microsoft's cloud
services will be a strong base as GM
advances its technology, such as the
Super Cruise
hands-free
driver-assist
system and Vehicle Intelligence Platform,
GM said.
It will also provide broader scale for
future mobility services, such as e-commerce,
the companies said.
The
capability,
enhanced
from the
GM and AT&T aim to speed up downloads
and improve other in-vehicle services.
current 4G LTE offering, will improve roadway
coverage, including reducing dead
spots; speed up music and video downloads;
make over-the-air updates faster
and more secure; and speed up navigation,
mapping and voice services, AT&T
and GM said this month.
" By connecting millions of GM vehicles
to our nationwide 5G network, we
will improve the customer experience for
existing services while laying the groundwork
for
the next wave of
including autonomous driving, " Gregory
Wieboldt, senior vice president of global
business, industry solutions at AT&T, said
in the statement.
" We now connect more vehicles than
any other carrier, and GM has played a critical
role in our success. "
Since the in-vehicle launch of AT&T's
4G LTE in 2014, GM customers have used
more than 171 million gigabytes of data,
which is equivalent to nearly 5.7 billion
hours of music streaming or more than
716 million hours of video streaming.
Other automakers, such as Ford Motor
Co., have added 5G to vehicles, which
allows customers to download more data
faster than 4G LTE, said Mike Ramsey, a
senior analyst at Gartner.
" The biggest part of this, " Ramsey said,
" is GM's commitment to put it across
their entire lineup. " n
innovation
EXTRA EYE ON SAFETY
At Mcity, a connected-vehicle test
bed at the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor, Honda and Verizon have
been testing the use of 5G to enhance
safety. The wireless technology,
combined with mobile edge
computing and Honda's Safe Swarm
vehicle-to-everything
communications system, can quickly
process data from smart cameras
mounted at intersections and warn
drivers of trouble, such as when a
building is blocking the driver's view
of an approaching pedestrian.
6
shift * august 2021
Shift Magazine - August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - August 2021
