Can telcos embark on a successful journey with the auto industry?

• Telcos are seeing a growing number of emerging opportunities for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services
• Cross-industry collaboration is being driven by 5G, edge and APIs
• The groundwork is now being laid for future software-defined vehicles
• Are we now accelerating towards commercial services?

The telecoms industry has long coveted a close relationship with the automotive and mobility sectors. On the face of it, telcos – particularly mobile network operators – should be the perfect partners to provide connectivity services to vehicles and roadside infrastructure. However, getting past the most basic of services (such as a bluetooth connection to a driver’s phone) has been challenging. The good news is that the planets may finally be aligning, and advances in 5G, edge and network APIs are increasingly being seen as key enablers for the future of mobility, connected vehicles and autonomous driving.

TelecomTV is, therefore, pleased to announce the launch of our latest channel, Telcos & Autos, dedicated to this vertical industry opportunity for DSPs. We will be closely following developments in this sector, from the software-defined vehicle to smart transportation solutions. Expect our usual mix of news, analysis, reports, videos and summits. Yes, there are still many challenges to making this sector a success, not least is the thorny issue of who pays for all of this connectivity, but technical collaborations are well underway and new solutions are emerging that have direct benefits for the automotive sector.

We are kicking off our coverage with a report from the recent 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) meeting in Berlin. And you can find a collection of video interviews on our Telcos & Autos channel, with more to follow. So what did we learn?

“5G is a game changer,” said Christoph Voigt, chairman of the 5GAA. “We are working on the C-V2X technology and we already have some deployments over the world. We currently have deployments in China already on the road, the United States is coming, and we are now working on the second generation of C-V2X – so-called 5G-V2X – and today you can see in the demos for the very first time. It’s working and this is the really, really exciting part of 5G.” Watch now – Transforming mobility: How 5GAA helps to advance automotive connectivity and safety.

“Every single OEM I know really gets excited about this,” said Colin Lee, technical specialist of V2X for Jaguar Land Rover. “But more importantly, because we’re getting excited about it, the road operators are getting excited about it. And governments are really into this because we’ve seen some [road user fatality] figures that are horrendous – that’s the reason why I think this is really going to make a massive difference.” Watch now – The role of 5G in enhancing vehicle functionality and safety.

Graham Rushton, CTO of partner markets for Vodafone, agrees: “I think everyone always talks about autonomous vehicles, of that being the goal. But the near-term reality is if we’re able to deploy platforms of this type, we could massively improve road safety, we can reduce casualties.” As the first operator to join the 5GAA, Vodafone believes in the long-term potential of the sector. “We are producing an ecosystem that is sustainable for the future, whether it’s 5G or 6G,” said Rushton. 

“The technology that we’re using and the environment and ecosystem we build will have a huge effect. And then obviously that’s different services that consumers can buy, but it’s that proliferation and network APIs, so not just the V2X area. The ability to consume APIs on this ecosystem for all sorts of different use cases – that will hopefully be the future.” Watch now – How Vodafone is enhancing road safety through the STEP platform.

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X)

One such technical innovation is the development of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X), which has been standardised in 3GPP. C-V2X defines an end-to-end connected mobility platform that allows vehicles to interact with their surroundings, such as other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians, road infrastructure or mobile networks.

There are two complementary transmission modes: Network communications (Uu) which, as its name implies, uses mobile networks to enable vehicles to receive real-time information about road conditions and local traffic; and direct communications (PC5), which works independently of cellular networks and allows vehicles to communicate directly with other road users. A good source of background information can be found here.

But this is telecoms and, especially in the world of standards, nothing moves fast. V2X was first considered back in 2015, as a study item within the 3GPP, before making its way into the Release 14 specifications in 2016. It was originally based on existing device-to-device (D2D) interface standards (which is where the term PC5 originated), enhanced to support higher speed communications and greater traffic density.

If you want to read the latest thinking on V2X, then this 3GPP technical document from May provides a comprehensive overview, as part of the Release 18 work.

The current market size for V2X is around the $1bn mark, give or take, as it is still very much in its infancy. However, in 10 years’ time this is forecast to grow to about £39bn, as the market for connected and autonomous vehicles ramps up and there is a greater focus on offering advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). This growth in demand is mirrored by the development of 5G capabilities and edge computing. V2X started with 4G but is being continuously enhanced as the 5G-based 3GPP release work gets commercialised. The latest iteration is known as 5G-V2X and comes with obvious latency improvements.

Road safety is another driver behind ADAS and V2X. According to the World Health Organization, there are around 1.19 million deaths each year as a result of road traffic accidents. The ability to connect vehicles with other road users and infrastructure will hopefully enable the development of real-time solutions to mitigate and avoid many of these situations. So on a technical level, everything is progressing nicely. However, auto manufacturers and their associated suppliers – the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – are incredibly price sensitive: Even fitting an additional SIM card into vehicles to support data functions was a battle. The cost of V2X to OEMs may only be a couple of hundred dollars, but that's enough to make many in the industry panic. It’s no wonder we are now seeing subscription add-ons being offered to drivers (would you pay a monthly surcharge for heated seats?). Plus, the bill to municipalities for roadside installation is considerably higher.

That’s the gloomy news. The good news is that at least all parties are talking and actively working on solutions. At an ITS event in Turin 25 years ago, there was outright hostility between the 3G operators and vendors on one side and the car makers and transport industry on the other. Thankfully, associations like the 5GAA have created common ground. In addition, some governments are also playing their part. For example, South Korea declared C-V2X as the standard for its upcoming vehicle communication system in December last year, and we are seeing a number of smart city initiatives focused on safety and traffic management.

The software-defined vehicle

There are several other initiatives and technologies that bring the capabilities of the telecoms industry to the automotive sector. In a recent article, we looked at a new partnership between the GSMA and the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) based on network APIs, as an extension to the AECC's earlier agreement with the Camara project – see The telco-auto relationship just shifted up a gear.

Like the 5GAA, the AECC is focused on ensuring interoperability between technologies, platforms and OEMs. The sector is far more geographically divided than the telecoms industry, and so a common agreed approach from the outset is essential, as the AECC stated in its announcement: “The collaboration aims to unlock the full potential of connected vehicle services and accelerate the adoption of next-generation automotive technologies, by ensuring common technology standards exist so developers can more easily access operator networks and edge computing functionality, wherever they are in the world.”

Much of this work could ultimately manifest itself in the so-called software-defined vehicle (SDV). Admittedly, this is still in its very early stages, but SDVs will move from hardware-centric to software-centric, with advanced connectivity features designed into the architecture and platforms from the outset, and all continuously managed via over-the-air software updates throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle. 

The market potential is vast. Depending on which research you trust, it could be anything from $300bn to $1.5tn within 10 years. But there’s a long way to go. Platform providers, such as Wind River (through its parent company Aptiv), are advancing the technology and creating the necessary operating systems and development tools.

There’s a long road ahead for telcos and autos, but TelecomTV will continue to monitor developments and report on the latest advances that offer opportunities for DSPs, so watch this space…  

- Guy Daniels, Director of Content, TelecomTV