The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) is a global, cross-industry organisation bridging the gap between automotive, technology, and telecom industries and promoting the C-V2X technology (Cellular vehicle-to-everything), a comprehensive platform for connected vehicles, safety, and transportation.

5GAA was created in September 2016 by its eight founding members: AUDI AG, BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm Incorporated.

5GAA unites now more than 130 companies diverse both in terms of geography and expertise. These include automotive manufacturers, tier-1 suppliers, chipset/communication system providers, mobile operators and infrastructure vendors. Find the full list of members here. 

5GAA’s members are committed to helping define and develop global solutions for the next generation of connected mobility and automated vehicle solutions to address the complex challenge of providing enhanced safety, sustainability, and convenience for all road users. Read more about 5GAA’s mission here.

Since its creation, 5GAA has helped transform C-V2X technology from a standard into a market reality and has established 5G as the reference for future automotive connectivity. The association is now regarded as the global lead organisation on automotive connectivity. (link to the 5^th anniversary report)

Major publications, reports and white papers include:

• Safety Treatment in V2X Applications
• Environmental Benefits of C-V2X
• Cooperation Models enabling deployment and use of 5G infrastructures for CAM in Europe
• Privacy by Design Aspects of C-V2X
• Tele-Operated Driving (ToD): System Requirements Analysis and Architecture
• Tele-Operated Driving (ToD): Business Considerations

5GAA is working on the basis of 5 association pillars: as the first and overarching pillar, 5GAA aims to bring value to its members. Four main pillars help to achieve this overarching pillar: (1) enable deployment by lifting barrier and accelerating time-to-market, (2) contribute to standardisation via pre-standardisation efforts of automotive connectivity, (3) advocate policymakers by addressing regional opportunities and threats, and (4) leverage innovative solutions within the larger connected automotive community.

The association is contribution-driven and only exists through collaborations and communications between its members.

Between 2019 and 2021, 5GAA’s work focused on eight priority areas: security and privacy, road infrastructure, Vulnerable road users, positioning, interoperability, cellular network, and flexible architecture and technology evolution. All of the priority areas are contributing to the association’s vision: “connected mobility for people, vehicles, and transport infrastructure”. You can find more information on 5GAA’s work here.

The association includes an Executive Committee, a Board, and a General Assembly. The Board, composed of eighteen members elected every year by the General Assembly, supervises and advises the Executive Committee in all respects, in particular with regard to strategic guidance. The Executive Committee is the legal representative body of the association and is responsible for its day-to-day management. You can know more about the 5GAA’s leadership and Board at this link.

In order to address society’s transport needs, 5GAA has seven working groups focused on:

• Use Cases and Technical Requirements
• System Architecture and Solution Development
• Evaluation, Testbeds, and Pilots
• Standards and Spectrum
• Regulatory and Public Affairs
• Security and Privacy

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5GAA Working Groups are overseeing the work done in the work programme made of a large number of Work Items. Work Items are time-limited targeted activities which may report to more than one Working Group depending on their tasks. Outputs from Work Items can take many different shapes: Technical Report, Technical Specifications, White Papers, measurements, prototypes and/or demonstrations.

5GAA believe true ecosystem cooperation must be achieved around sustainable business models. An ecosystem that would gather the whole value-chain of connected mobility, seamlessly interacting with partners and standardisation bodies.

5GAA collaborates with different actors active in many fields: Standardisation bodies, Testing, Conformance and Interoperability organisations, Promotion Groups and Think Tanks, and regional organisations. 5GAA is also part of several European and national projects related to 5G networks and connected mobility. You can discover more on 5GAA’s partnerships here.

Friends of 5GAA is a group subscribing to a global newsletter addressing issues of interest and concerns to organisations that are not members but would like to keep up-to-date on 5GAA’s activities: typically road operators, ministries, public bodies, etc. They can also engage with the 5GAA members to identify synergies and business opportunities to accelerate and streamline the deployment of connected automotive.

Cellular-V2X (C-V2X), as initially defined as LTE V2X in 3GPP Release 14, is a technology that allows vehicles to communicate with each other and the wider transport ecosystem.
It includes Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-(Roadway) Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) direct communication without necessarily relying on network involvement for scheduling. This is complemented by the connectivity to the mobile network (V2N) using LTE.

C-V2X has a clear evolution path to 5G (also called 5G New Radio (NR)) for both modes of operation mentioned above.  C-V2X direct communication has an evolution path to 5G-NR based C-V2X, and LTE- network communication has its evolution patch to 5G-NR network communication.

5GAA supports the idea that 5G will be the ultimate platform to enable C-ITS and the provision of V2X. 5G will be able to better carry mission-critical communications for safer driving, and further support enhanced V2X communications and connected mobility solutions.

V2X includes:

• V2V: Vehicle to Vehicle communications – Direct and short-range communication between Vehicles for critical safety applications – providing 360^o non-line-of-sight awareness for improved safety;
• V2P: Direct and short-range communication between Vehicles and Pedestrians – including all “vulnerable” road users such as cyclists;
• V2I: Direct and short-range communication between Vehicles and Infrastructure – allowing the vehicle to connect to and receive road traffic information (signage, traffic lights etc.);
• V2N: Network communications between Vehicles and Network (i.e. the cloud) – providing vehicles with advanced traffic routing, long range information and cloud-based services, e.g. Infotainment.

C-V2X technology combines two complementary modes of communication:

Direct & short-range connectivity for safety applications without requiring network coverage or subscription. This operates in designated ITS spectrum bands (e.g. ITS 5.9 GHz) also known as “LTE-PC5”. C-V2X direct communication gives vehicles the ability to communicate with each other (V2V), to pedestrians (V2P), to roadway infrastructure (V2I), enabling safer, more autonomous vehicles of the future;

Connectivity via regular cellular networks for non-safety applications like navigation and infotainment in the car. This operates in the traditional mobile broadband licensed spectrum – also known as “LTE-Uu”. C-V2X network communication allows vehicles to communicate with the network (V2N).

In China, cars enabled with Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology are already available. To this date, 14 C-V2X vehicles have been commercialised so far. In the United States, Ford has committed to deploy C-V2X in all new vehicle models from early 2022.  Finally, in Europe, BMW and Samsung are set to offer 5G/CV2X in their iNEXT vehicle this year, in 2021.

In 2020, 5GAA released a Visionary 2030 Roadmap outlining the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) use cases to improve traffic efficiency and road safety around the world expected in the next decade. Close to 200 million ‘connected vehicles’ are already on the roads worldwide, and a growing number of vehicles with the ability to exchange traffic and road condition information over cellular networks. Further progress in the coming years will pivot around 5G-V2X use cases for more efficient and safe driving. From 2025 onwards, 5GAA expects the mass rollout of more advanced automated driving and safety use cases supported by vehicle connectivity. Additional automated driving functionalities are anticipated from 2026.

5G for automotive has the potential to have the most revolutionary impact by saving millions of lives by reducing road accidents. Furthermore, it will have a positive impact by producing more efficient journeys, minimising travel times, traffic jams and improving environmental footprints. Unlike other competitive technologies, C-V2X leverages both cost-effective direct short-range communications and long-range cellular connectivity. This allows more cost-effective use of an integrated connectivity platform to address the broadest range of safety features.

The cost-efficiency of C-V2X is determined mainly by the three following reasons:

C-V2X integration with existing cellular modem: C-V2X can deliver both short-range safety V2X applications and long-range network communications via the one modem, which accelerates time to market and market penetration, contributing to enhanced safety and reducing cost;

For pedestrians, C-V2X will also find its way into consumer-electronics smartphones both for use by pedestrians, cyclists and unequipped vehicles due to its low power consumption and its possible integration with 4G/LTE chipsets;

Benefit from the economy of scale as it can leverage synergies between transportation and other verticals which are moving towards 5G (e.g. e-health, smart cities, industry 4.0, smart farming, etc.)

C-V2X will improve safety on roads by tremendously facilitating the flow of information between vehicles, pedestrians, and road infrastructure. This will enable connected vehicles to anticipate and avoid dangerous situations, reducing collisions and potentially saving lives.

More connected mobility with C-V2X can help address the constantly growing need for mobility while achieving lower emissions with a 5-20% estimated emission reduction potential. Connected mobility will increase transport efficiency and driving patterns, thus reducing congestion, fuel consumption and emissions. Moreover, it will allow the creation of new ways around traffic flow management and better, more localised environmental control (e.g., dynamic geofencing). 5GAA and its members are convinced the global deployment of C-V2X technology will have a sustainable impact worldwide. However, connected vehicles must reach a critical mass to impact emissions reduction significantly. Read here to have more information about the environmental benefits of C-V2X.