Huawei and Vodafone showcase the Future Connected Car experience at MWC 2017

[Barcelona, Spain, February 28, 2017] At the Mobile World Congress 2017 (MWC 2017) in Barcelona, Huawei and Vodafone, with the support of Audi, demonstrate for the first time in Europe the use of cellular technology to connect cars to each other, to people, and to roadside infrastructure enhancing safety and delivering a better driving experience. Using a new technology called Cellular V2X (C-V2X) the live demonstration takes place in front of invited guests at the world famous Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya race track.

As part of the 4G evolution towards 5G, the new C-V2X technology enables rapid exchange of information between vehicles, other road users and infrastructure promising to bring about a transformational change to driving, vehicle safety, traffic management and road efficiency. This latest development follows the successful live trial by Huawei, Vodafone and Bosch of a 5.9 GHz C-V2X connection purely between vehicles on the A9 motorway in Germany in February 2017.

Guests invited to the showcase are passengers in an Audi vehicle specially fitted with C-V2X technology. The driver of the car then demonstrates four scenarios of how connected vehicles can enhance driving:

• See through – connected cars can see a video feed from a vehicle in front in situations where it will help them to have visibility of other traffic, upcoming entry roads or other issues to negotiate.
• Traffic light warning – the driver will be alerted if a traffic light is about to change enabling them to better anticipate when to slow down.
• Pedestrian warning – mobile connectivity can alert vehicles to a pedestrian crossing the road ahead, even before they are visible to sensors or the driver.
• Emergency brake – an algorithm will determine if there is a risk from other connected vehicles suddenly braking or changing lanes and will sound an alarm to alert the driver.

The demonstration also shows how direct communication between vehicles based on C-V2X can enable these use cases and provide the basis for future enhancements towards autonomous driving.

Luke Ibbetson, Vodafone Group’s Head of Research & Development and Technology Strategy, said:

“C-V2X will be a core component for connected and autonomous vehicles as it enables better anticipation and negotiation of road risks. This is an example of how Vodafone is evolving our fast and reliable 4G networks on the road to 5G. ”

Edward Deng, President of Wireless Network Product Line at Huawei, said: “Intelligent transport is set to be one of the key application scenarios of future mobile communication systems. With our long history of successful joint innovation, together with Vodafone, Huawei is very pleased to pioneer the Cellular V2X solution development to serve the needs of future ITS systems, and pave the way to a Better Connected World with fully intelligent transport systems.”

For this ground-breaking demonstration, Vodafone installed a powerful mobile radio network for data transmission covering the race track while Huawei supplied the mobile radio modules installed in the cars and the required communication technology update to base stations.

MWC 2017 runs from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei is showcasing its products and solutions at booth 1J50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1, booth 3130 in Hall 3, and the Innovation City zone in Hall 4.