5G Automotive Association (5GAA) Director General, Johannes Springer, explains the crucial role of the association in bringing together key players of the automotive, technology and telecommunications industries to share best practices, business ideas and models and develop end-to-end solutions for future mobility and transportation services.

The interview took place back in October 2019 at the 5G CMM Expo & Conference.

5G Automotive Association (5GAA) Director General, Johannes Springer, explains the crucial role of the association in bringing together key players of the automotive, technology and telecommunications industries to share best practices, business ideas and models and develop end-to-end solutions for future mobility and transportation services.

The interview took place back in October 2019 at the 5G CMM Expo & Conference.

The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) is a global, cross-industry organisation of more than 120 companies from the automotive, technology, and telecommunications industries (ICT), working together to develop end-to-end connectivity solutions for future mobility and transportation services.

5GAA welcomes the opportunity to give feedback on the call for inputs on the impact of 5G on regulation from the Body of European regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

Following the assessment by the BEREC on the list of regulatory aspects impacted by the development of the 5G technology, 5GAA would take this opportunity to add potential missing regulatory aspects as well as to highlight 5GAA’s view on BEREC’s priorities for the coming three years.

1. 1. 5GAA considers the availability of spectrum for digital communications to be critical for road safety using 5.9 GHz ITS spectrum. It is therefore essential that any regulatory framework provides certainty to the industry to invest in today’s technology for Day 1 services as well as a robust roadmap for advanced safety (5GAA is currently working on a related Work Item on New Radio V2X).
   2. Beside the direct communication means in the 5.9 GHz band enabling V2V and V2I communication, 5GAA stresses the need for the development of mobile network coverage alongside the road network, and calls for the adoption of regulation which stimulates investments in mobile network coverage (5GAA is currently working on a related Work Item on Strategic Deployment Agenda), to enable the full range of capabilities provided by cellular V2X.
   3. 5GAA highlights the need for continuous coverage and seamless handover of 5G connectivity for vehicles crossing country borders in Europe. Further work is needed, notably in collaboration with standardisation bodies, to establish the right conditions to stimulate continuous coverage and seamless handover across borders. (5GAA is currently working on a Work Item on Network Selection for this very purpose). However, it should be noted that despite the importance of cross-border handover with 5G networks, given use of ITS spectrum, it is not a concern for the 5G sidelink case.
   4. 5GAA stresses the required investments into connected intelligent traffic infrastructures to assure safe and efficient mobility. Significant investments can be ensured by stimulating synergies of mobile network infrastructure and intelligent road infrastructure along with cohesive funding mechanisms (e.g. CEF Transport/Digital) (5GAA is currently working on a Work Item on Road Side Unit).
      On this point, 5GAA would like to add that CEF transport needs to remain technological neutral while CEF Digital should be focused on Mobile Networks.
   5. As road safety and automated driving are prominent example of Quality of Service needs, 5GAA calls for regulation which focuses on social benefits, outcomes and market adoption to position Europe as a global leader in the field. (e.g. enables prioritization of different service classes) (5GAA is currently working on a Work Item on this matter, Business Aspects of Network Slicing (BARNS)).
   6. 5GAA would like to draw attention to CCAM’s needs in terms of direct communications for critical road safety use cases as well as complementary network based communication and calls for the adoption of regulation which considers various ways of connectivity and keep regulation technology neutral.
   7. As CCAM goes beyond automotive sector, 5GAA would like to point that there is an opportunity to address the digital transformation of the transportation sectors by stimulating synergies with other transportation sectors (as pedestrians, bikes, motorcycles, esp. in urban environments, as well as rail and tolling).

The next years are crucial to set Europe at the forefront of the development of 5G and of Connected and Automated Mobility, to guarantee the safe and sustainable mobility of citizens while maintaining a global competitive edge in 5G development. Effective synergy between the development of the 5G ecosystem and European regulation is a precondition to ensuring that the benefits of 5G are indeed fulfilled.

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5G Techritory is the annual Baltic Sea Region 5G Ecosystem Forum organised by the Electronic Communications Office (ECO) of Latvia, aiming at gathering decision makers, major representatives from industry associations, and business leaders to discuss the deployment of the earliest available commercial applications of 5G technology. Its second edition is going to be held in the Latvian capital, Riga, on 27-29 November.

Taking place in a vibrant region for 5G implementation, the 5G Automotive Association is proud to be confirmed once again as one of the main partners of this conference. 5GAA Director General Johannes Springer is going to participate as a speaker in front of an audience of up to a thousand senior professionals invited upon an attentive selection to ensure the highest quality of debate.

The Baltic Sea Region includes nine countries comprising of a population of 150 million people. Among the Baltic countries, Latvia appears in the third place of the 5G Readiness ranking according to the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2019 report. This result shows that the potential for international leadership in the field is highly promising and this edition has all the characteristics to be a must-visit, given the renewed interest for digital and technology of the newly appointed European Commission.

Since the objective of the programme is to focus on what is readier for commercialisation, four verticals have been identified as the main topics:

• Smart City
• Smart Mobility
• Industry 4.0
• Smart Media and Entertainment

In addition, a 5G policy hackathon, a key stakeholders’ roundtable and an exhibition are scheduled as side events.

Registration is open and all the possible interested participants are encouraged to apply.

See the official press release and leaflet.

The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) is a global, cross-industry organisation of companies from the automotive and telecommunications industries, working together to develop end-to-end solutions for future mobility and transport services.

Following its vision, 5GAA has rapidly expanded to include key players, namely the automotive manufacturers, Tier-1 suppliers, chipset/communication system providers, mobile operators and infrastructure vendors. More than 120 companies have now joined 5GAA. Diverse both in terms of geography and expertise, 5GAA’s members are committed to helping define and develop the next generation of connected mobility and automated vehicle and intelligent transport solutions.

5GAA is willing to engage with the Chinese government and eco-system to accelerate the growth of the automotive industry and connected-automated driving services in China. Regarding Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) Onboard Unit (open for public comment), 5GAA fully supports the targets to phase out physical tolling stations in China and would like to share some views on introducing C-V2X technology to fulfil this function:

1. Our research and field tests indicate that C-V2X offers high network security and reliability, as well as better performance in terms of coverage and latency compared to other existing alternatives. 5GAA believes that enabling electronic toll collection (ETC) via C-V2X would offer significant benefits. 5GAA is acting to include tolling as one of the most critical use cases supported by C-V2X. In addition, we noticed that the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) V2X Technical Committee has worked on a similar objective. More importantly, in addition to vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), C-V2X supports vehicle-to-pedestrians (V2P), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-network (V2N), encompassing all scenarios of smart mobility;
2. C-V2X is the future-proof technology to evolve from LTE-V2X to NR-V2X and so on;
3. C-V2X has matured thanks to broad cross-industry support. Major carmakers are now speeding up the business cases and pre-installation of C-V2X in their vehicles. For example, 5GAA released its C-V2X deployment roadmap at the beginning of 2018 and expects the first batch of C-V2X-equipped cars to be commercialised as early as 2020.
4. With regard to industry development, 5GAA believes there are two phases for C-V2X to be implemented and to enable all services needed to realise intelligent transport:

• Phase I: Utilising the existing C-V2X mature products and industry’s support, including chipset, devices, vehicles and communication equipment, to address tolling service for highway scenarios.
• Phase II: Based on C-V2X and its implementation in diverse categories of terminals like mobile phones (pre-installed and after-market), foster V2I synergy for the next ten years, e.g. highway tolling, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), for V2P, as well as road safety and coordinated driving for V2V.

5GAA believes C-V2X technology is a critical technology enabler for in-vehicle ETC technology and recommends including C-V2X into the Chinese national standard covering the Electronic Toll Collection Onboard Unit.

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Toronto is hosting the next quarterly 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) Face-to-Face meeting. The event spans over five days focused on cellular-to-everything (C-V2X) technology.

The first three days will be dedicated to meetings on Working and Cross-Working Group Items. Days four and five will kick off with board and executive level discussions and a workshop on connected and automated driving in North America. These exciting events will be coupled with live demonstrations, hosted by 5GAA Canada-based members.

The 5GAA Workshop

5GAA will be hosting a workshop around ‘C-V2X: The Future of Connected and Automated Driving in North America’. With over 200 attendees expected, the event targets North American transport stakeholders, including policymakers, road traffic authorities, road operators and an array of interest groups and industry representatives. The primary objective is to raise awareness of C-V2X and the opportunity it provides to drive its adoption in North America.

The workshop will be divided in two parts, the first part will focus on an update to C-V2X development, including an overview of the European Road Map, as well as examples of recent innovation in Europe and North America. The second part will embark on a broader path, concentrating on future connected mobility. Key figures from Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in North America will be presenting and take part in the day’s discussions. See workshop programme here.

Due to limited capacity, the workshop is by invitation only. Please contact liaison@5gaa.org for more information.

Live Demonstrations

5GAA members, Bell Canada and Huawei Canada, will organise two separate demonstrations of C-V2X 5G technology, 6-8 August 2019.

One demonstration, HD Mapping and Vulnerable Road User (VRU) Vehicle to Network, will take approximately 30 minutes and feature an in-vehicle live HD Map/VRU system.

The other demonstration will centre on Tele-operated Driving (ToD) Vehicle to Network technology. It will last approximately three hours at the Bell campus in Mississauga, Canada. There will be lunch served and a shuttle service to and from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Delegates can register here.

Following the first session held in Brussels on 12-13 February 2019, 5GAA returned to the second 5G Vertical User Workshop, which was in Rome on 9-10 July 2019. This initiative, launched by 3GPP Market Representative Partners (5GAA, 5G-IA, 5G-ACIA and PSCE) was organised as a collaborative event for strategic dialogue between vertical industries (technology, automotive and transport, health and public safety ) and 3GPP by exchanging on future needs and upcoming cellular standard developments.

5G networks are intended to bring a new innovative ecosystem, where actors from the vertical industries will be involved alongside the telecom operators, manufacturers, SMEs and research institutes. There is an increasing need to involve this wider range of industries to optimally capture end-user requirements and contribute to the 3GPP standardisation process. The working groups of 3GPP operate on a bottom-up basis focusing on partners contributions. As such, 3GPP notably benefits from further developing the role and usefulness of 5G vertical industries as Market Representation Partners.

The agenda for the 2nd 5G Vertical Users Workshop can be found here. The Workshop focused on 5G vertical technical viewpoints, common requirements and common interests with lively interactive discussions. 5GAA members Huawei, Nokia and Orange supported the workshop. The 5GAA CTO, Maxime Flament, had seized the opportunity to address:

• The 5GAA vision for 3GPP rel-17 as part of C-V2X and intelligent transport systems (available here)
• Predictive QoS, an innovative mechanism to provide in-advance QoS notifications from the network to the V2X application (available here)

5GAA enthusiastically supports the initiative and to enhance collaboration with partners such as 5G-IA, 5G-ACIA and PSCE.

Several innovative automotive use cases using C-V2X technologies have emerged during the last years and many more will come in the following years in an attempt to describe novel capabilities and new features of connected vehicles. Safety, vehicle operations management, convenience, autonomous driving, platooning, traffic efficiency and environmental friendliness, society and community are some of the areas that C-V2X use cases are expected to have high impact.

This white paper describes 5GAA’s methodology in defining use cases and associated Service Level Requirements (SLRs) in a communications technology solution agnostic approach. Sequences of actions and interactions between involved actors are described as general as possible relative to the specific implementation and architecture of the overlaying cellular system. Moreover, an example set of C-V2X use cases have been described in detail and have been used to apply the 5GAA methodology. Each use case is composed of multiple use case scenarios, wherein use case scenarios can differ in terms of applicable road environment, actors involved, service flows, etc. The SLRs of the selected example use cases have been provided and analyzed in a technology and implementation agnostic way.

5GAA use cases are used by 5GAA work groups to develop C-V2X solutions, create test procedures, demos and pilots, evaluate spectrum needs and co-operate with Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and finally create the business case and path for deployment.

Please note that this document is currently under revision

Click here to read the White Paper. 

The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) welcomes the Council of the European Union’s objection against the proposal for Delegated Regulation on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), as a clear signal of support to technology neutrality.

Brussels, Belgium – On 8^th July 2019 the Council of the European Union adopted a decision to object against the proposal for Delegated Regulation on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS).

5GAA endorses the Council conclusions and will continue to advocate for an EU framework that abides by the principle of technology neutrality, inclusive of all available technical solutions, to improve road safety and traffic efficiency.

The current C-V2X generation, LTE-V2X, is fully standardised and ready for deployment in all world regions as emphasised by announcements from multiple OEMs in the USA and China.

5GAA and its members stand ready to engage in a positive dialogue with the European institutions and all stakeholders to define such a future-proof regulatory framework for cooperative, connected and automated mobility in Europe.