5GAA & GSMA Letter to EU Commission

The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) represents the automotive and telecom industry’s alignment for the global connected and autonomous vehicle, supported by more than 50 member companies including many world class car manufacturers. 5GAA’s mission is to develop, test and promote communication solutions for the future of the 5G automotive economy in Europe and globally. The 5GAA is actively contributing to ETSI, 3GPP and ITU in the fields of standardisation and spectrum-related matters. The 5GAA is committed to accelerating Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) standards seamlessly embracing 4G and 5G, and would like to call on the European Commission to support stakeholders in this collaborative process by providing leadership and timely regulatory support.

The GSMA, which represents the Mobile Network Operators globally, has succeddfully collaborated with the Automotive Industry for many years. Together we have created secure solutions that have advanced the Connected Car market with major benefits to consumers. Cellular V2X will enable further cross-industry collaboration with government agencies in cities and transport. The GSMA believes that C-V2X will contribute to safer vehicles, reduce congestion and pollution. It will build upon the existing 23 million existing Cellular Connected Car market in Europe and drive the deployment of Digital Europe.

The 5GAA is keenly aware of the imperative for road safety and the need for Europe to assert 5G leadership while ensuring spectrum efficiency. Given the longevity of vehicles and the significant industry investment in cellular technologies, C-V2X will be of utmost importance as Europe and the world transitions to 5G in supporting mission critical applications and the massive opportunities associated with the introduction of a new global standard.

We therefore urge the European Commission to allow the ITS-G5 and C-V2X stakeholders to work collaboratively toward an agreement on the future of connected and automated cars, without a premature and cumbersome legislative decision.

The 5GAA is confident that the industry will ultimately align with a pragmatic solution that saves the most lives while embracing technology evolution, and managing complexity and cost. We firmly believe in and pledge to collaboratively work with other stakeholders on solutions that ultimately benefit the European Union. We encourage the European Commission to support technology neutrality, mitigating a significant risk that 5G in the key automotive vertical will struggle, thus impacting the European automotive industry and the future growth and global competitiveness of the EU economy.

Europe is an important pillar for members of the 5GAA and is leading the world in the development of smart transportation solutions. A considerable part of C-V2X innovation occurs in Europe, and will contribute to road safety, the development of smart cities and trans-border corridors, to achieve the efficiency and environmental objectives that ultimately benefit European citizens. 5GAA members are accelerating C-V2X with pre-commercial trials in Europe, and will culminate in global deployments.

We are strongly supportive of 3GPP technologies for direct communications over ITS spectrum to enable vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicle-to-pedestrian (and other vulnerable road users), i.e. C-V2X, while also leveraging vehicle-to-network over mobile operator spectrum. An important part of the ongoing 5GAA work is to support the European Commission’s policies laid out in the C-ITS Masterplan, as well as Gear2030 for Highly Automated Vehicles and the 5G Action Plan. We strongly rely on the European institutional support to enable a regulatory framework conducive to an industry-driven and swift deployment of the platform of their choice.

The 5GAA looks forward to continuing the dialogue with the European Commission and the various industry stakeholders in order to lay the foundation for a 5G automotive future in Europe.

Download the letter here