5GAA Announces New Executive Director, Americas
John F. Kwant will lead 5GAA’s U.S. activities as the trade association’s first Executive Director, Americas
Washington DC, March 28th – The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) has announced the appointment of John F. Kwant as the organization’s inaugural Executive Director, Americas. In this new role, he will serve as the principal spokesperson for 5GAA in the United States while developing and executing a public policy and communications strategy to advance the safe and timely deployment of Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (“C-V2X”) technology.
“John is a well-known and respected thought leader and advocate for connected technology deployment, so we are thrilled to have him lead 5GAA’s efforts to facilitate connected mobility in the United States. John’s appointment as Executive Director, Americas signals how far 5GAA has progressed in recent years, and the creation of this position is a natural next step in shaping the new era of mobility and paving the way towards connected driving,” said Christoph Voigt, chairman of the 5GAA Board. “His extensive advocacy experience and knowledge of the connected mobility landscape make him uniquely suited to navigate public policy issues, build relationships, and drive 5GAA’s message in the Americas.”
Prior to joining 5GAA, John spent more than 20 years with the Ford Motor Company, holding various global business, strategy, and government relations roles in Dearborn, Washington, D.C., and Shanghai. Most recently, he was Ford’s Global Director of Mobility and Advanced Technologies, leading global advocacy for autonomous and connected vehicles and mobility solutions. In this role, he was instrumental in establishing 5GAA’s U.S. Policy Taskforce, serving as its Chair for several years.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that 42,915 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2021, a 10.5 percent increase from 2020. Many of these incidents could be avoided with the broad deployment of roadway safety technologies like C-V2X. NHTSA has previously estimated that safety applications enabled by V2X could eliminate or mitigate the severity of more than 80 percent of light vehicle crashes.
“With the right policies in place, C-V2X technology will deliver significant safety benefits and would likely help to reverse the rising number of roadway fatalities on our roadways. I believe we’re at an inflection point, with broad public and private sector consensus that now is the time to deploy,” said Kwant. “I am thrilled to be working with recognized leaders in the automotive, telecommunications, and technology industries towards broadscale deployment of C-V2X solutions.”
Kwant is a native Michigander with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. He also holds both a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Engineering Management degree from Northwestern University.
About 5GAA
The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) is a global, cross-industry organization of over 130 members made of leading global automakers, Tier-1 suppliers, mobile operators, semiconductor companies, and test equipment vendors. It works together to develop end-to-end solutions for future mobility and transport services. 5GAA is committed to helping define and develop the next generation of connected mobility, automated vehicle, and intelligent transport solutions based on C-V2X. For more information, visit our website www.5gaa.org.
MWC 2018: 5GAA Gaining Speed Toward C-V2X commercialization
March 2nd, Barcelona, Spain – The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) presented – during a session at the Mobile World Congress 2018 – the acceleration of C-V2X technology implementation through the widespread support of leading telecommunications and automotive companies. This advanced technology will serve as the lynchpin that will create a connected vehicle ecosystem and enable future mobility solutions. March 1st, Barcelona, Spain – The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) presented – during a session at the Mobile World Congress 2018 – the acceleration of C-V2X technology implementation through the widespread support of leading telecommunications and automotive companies. This advanced technology will serve as the lynchpin that will create a connected vehicle ecosystem and enable future mobility solutions.
The value of C-V2X technology lies in the fact that it is a unified technology – it can provide short-range and long-range communications. C-V2X technology can, for example, alert drivers of a cyclist around the corner or a traffic jam that is 25 kilometers away.
Christoph Voigt, 5GAA Chairman and Head of R&D Connectivity at Audi announced that: “This effort is now ‘all hands on deck’, meaning that telecommunications and automotive leaders are all working hand-in-hand to deploy C-V2X and to make it hit the road as soon as possible.”
During its session, 5GAA focused on the growing support that C-V2X technology is enjoying among leading companies in the telecommunications and automotive industries and presented the importance that 5G cellular technology will play in enabling smart mobility of the future.
C-V2X gains wide ecosystem support
During the presentation, 5GAA members Qualcomm and Huawei emphasized the growing C-V2X ecosystem support and presented their integrated chipsets that will enable C-V2X commercialization. The start of C-V2X mass market series deployment is predicted to begin as early as 2019/2020.
“We see a growing appetite across the industry for the commercialization of our C-V2X chipset with automakers, Tier-1 suppliers, cellular module manufacturers, ITS providers, integrators, and automakers ready to drive change,” said Jason Ellis, Director of Automotive Business Development at Qualcomm.
Veni Shone, President of LTE product line at Huawei, highlighted that the momentum of C-V2X in China is encouraging – ministries have put their full support behind C-V2X technology on strategy and standardization. Mr. Shone also detailed Huawei’s commitment to accelerate C-V2X, specifically pointing at the releases of its LTE-V2X chipset, T-box prototype, and roadside units.
5GAA plans to support and advocate the work of this technology by speeding up the deployment of C-V2X for the automotive sector while creating a joint ecosystem and implementing key functionalities such as vehicle-to-smart-device.
5G as an enabler for life-saving solutions & new business applications
5GAA members Ericsson and Ford also highlighted exciting use cases and growing business applications for 5G technology in the automotive sector.
Don Butler, Executive Director of Connected Vehicles and Services at Ford stated that: “Creating safer and more personalized journeys through automated driving is the long-term vision of mobility’s future. We believe 5G will enable this by maximizing the in-vehicle experience thanks to high reliability, fast-paced communications. We will create new, compelling experiences and capabilities saving more lives with patient transport monitoring or teleoperated driving.”
With the advancement of 5G technology and its application to connected vehicles, the amount of data created will continue to expand exponentially.
Stefano Sorrentino, Master Researcher at Ericsson presented the fact that: “Connected & automated driving will lead to a data explosion that will definitely challenge the network capacities. This challenge could be remedied through the deployment of scalable and integrated networks and cloud architectures as well as the continuous evolution of radio technology into 5G.”
“We think of 5G as an end-to-end solution starting with the wireless connectivity but also including edge computing, the transport network, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Together they power the applications and the services for intelligent transportation and smart mobility, and ultimately, the ways humans interact with connected and self-driving cars of the future. It is an exciting area for 5GAA to work on and we invite any stakeholder to join us and contribute on this journey.” concluded Thierry Klein, Head of Disruptive Innovation Program at Nokia Bell Labs and Vice Chair of 5GAA Board.
About 5GAA
The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) is a global cross-industry organization of companies from the automotive, technology and telecommunications industries (ICT), working together to develop end-to-end solutions for future mobility and transportation services. Created in 2016, the Association is comprised of over 75 members whose mission is to develop, test and promote communications solutions, initiate their standardisation and accelerate their commercial availability and global market penetration, to address society’s connected mobility and road safety needs with applications such as automated driving, ubiquitous access to services and integration into smart city and intelligent transportation.
