Vodafone Begins Field Trial Of Its Connected Cars Platform

Leading technology communications company, Vodafone famed for its diversification from telecom to other innovative market is set to fully cement its place as a ‘mobile cloud platform’. The Vodafone brand, with its market spanning across Europe to Africa has enjoyed the privileges of having a public sector approval over the years and is set to leverage on that to advance its market.

The company has now started field trials of its connected car platform, a tentative move towards the use of its mobile edge to perma-connect cars and thus give them the opportunity to continually communicate with their environment.

The move, which has the peculiarity of empowering the driver with information on the real-time by sending data to a kind of network traffic to allow him have a better knowledge of information around is a very crucial step of having the connected car dream expectation of full autonomous driving.

Vodafone’s Head of Group R & D, Luke Ibbetson was full of excitement when he declared:
“It’s fantastic to see vehicle to everything mobile technology being deployed on the open road for the first time in the UK,” said Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D at Vodafone.

“While the system is delivered via Smartphone, drivers will need to use hands free equipment. Meanwhile we are working with the automotive industry and road operators to have the technology integrated within vehicles and transport infrastructure to make our roads safer,” Chordant SVP, Ash Wheeler, opined that “Road Operators are seeking to digitally interact and exchange information with vehicles and road users.”
He added: “We’re delighted that, through this partnership and the services we are creating, transport authorities and vehicle manufacturers around the world will be able to test, validate and rapidly deploy standardized C-ITS services over existing cellular networks, improving road safety, reducing congestion and unlocking new driver experiences.”

According to Statista, a Germany-based company that specializes in market and consumer data, the worldwide sales of cars connected with embedded telematics were estimated to shoot up to 28.5 million units in 2019 alone, providing an opportunity for more intelligent urban transport forms.

“The rising number of automobiles and trucks on the world’s streets requires more intelligent forms of urban transport than the conventional ones, and today’s smart cities are providing the smart infrastructure that is needed for the implementation of connected car programs,” the company posited.

Statista further projected that the market for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) will expand to about 36 billion euros by 2025, adding that autonomous vehicle startup companies like ‘Cruise’ are the companies likely to latch on this trend to benefit.

Vodafone will definitely beam its light on the safety as it is very crucial to the development of systems that link road users across the mobile platforms with the provision of a Nokia analytics software, Vodafone edge, which will provide the application of data insights to ensure the safety of roads, better user experience and the enhancement of road infrastructure management across varying geographical areas.