BMW Group cars and motorcycles that talk to each other demonstrate new ways to safer and more efficient mobility in the simTD research project.

Frankfurt am Main . Intelligent driving that saves energy and enhances safety always means anticipating what lies ahead as well. Car-to-X communication makes a major contribution to intelligent mobility of the future by allowing the driver to look a long way ahead, see things that are hidden, and even peer around several corners. Since the potential of Car-to-X communication can only be fully exploited through mass use, the only real benefit is to be gained by researching this technology in alliance with other partners. That is why, four years ago, numerous companies from the automotive and telecoms sectors, the federal state government of Hessen, the city of Frankfurt am Main and a number of well-known universities and research institutes came together to work on the research project simTD (Safe and Intelligent Mobility - Test Field Germany). Their shared objective was to test Car-to-X technology in actual traffic. Now, the results of this project were revealed in the concluding presentation in Frankfurt am Main.

Car-to-X communication: the networking technology of the future.

In Car-to-X communication, vehicles and infrastructure are electronically linked to each other. This allows direct communications between vehicles as well as between vehicles and the traffic infrastructure, such as traffic light signals. Car-to-X communication takes place via wireless LAN or mobile network connections. The ad-hoc communication is based on high-speed WLAN, which is derived from the high-frequency WLAN standard IEEE 802.11p or ITS G5A and allows real-time communication. The protocol is structured so that many subscribers can communicate with each other in parallel. At the same time, mobile communication networks are becoming increasingly powerful, with higher bandwidths and even shorter delays – or latency times – in data transmission. As such, they are playing an increasingly important role in Car-to-X communication, e.g. as a means of supplementing WLAN communications.

20 BMW cars and five BMW motorcycles were involved in simTD.

After four years of research, one of the world’s biggest field trials for Car-to-X communication has now been completed. Using more than 120 test vehicles, the technology was put to the test for the first time in real traffic conditions on motorways and major highways as well as urban routes in and around Frankfurt am Main. “The BMW Group was the only project partner to involve both cars and motorcycles in the field trial,” explains Dr Christoph Grote, Head of BMW Group Research and Technology.