BMW and Renault exchange accident warnings

Munich. Imagine a lonely country road in the middle of the night: you
have passed the last house some time ago. Suddenly, behind a curve, a
car blocks the road. You immediately brake and barely manage to come to
a halt. The car hit a deer and the driver is severely injured. By the
push of a button, your vehicle establishes communication with the
nearest emergency response centre and automatically sends the exact
location of the accident. Immediately and automatically, it will also
start sending a warning message - resembling a virtual breakdown
triangle - directly to the vehicles approaching the scene of the
accident. Another driver receives the message, is able to slow down,
drive around the accident safely or stop and help. A few minutes later,
the emergency physician arrives. Your vehicle has also informed the
regional traffic control centre and shortly after the traffic in the
area is also informed by digital radio broadcast about the hazard
situation. Today, this rescue scenario was successfully demonstrated in
Munich to representatives of the European Commission by BMW Group
Research and Technology and Renault, who have jointly developed it.
"BMW and Renault have achieved a major milestone," says
Juhani Jääskeläinen, Deputy Head of Unit at Departement
Generale "Information Society and Media" of the European
Commission. "They have demonstrated a road safety application
based on inter-vehicle communication between two different makes. We
welcome this initiative, which shows the progress in harmonization and
standardization achieved with the help of EU funding." For the
first time at the European level, communication between vehicles of
different manufacturers is possible and an important step taken towards
pan-European harmonization of this technology. Since 2004, BMW Group
Research and Technology and Renault are partners in the European
research project GST - Global System for Telematics. GST, co-funded by
the EU, develops an open architecture for interoperable telematics
services. Therein, the two companies in addition to and independently
of the otherwise agreed topics and goals have cooperated and given each
other access to their respective pre-existing and other IPR to
implement the scenario described above. The result of the joint effort:
a life-saving dialogue among vehicles of the two brands. "I expect
GST and vehicle-to-vehicle communication to have a great contribution
towards safer, more efficient and more comfortable transport and
mobility of in Europe", says Juhani Jääskeläinen.
The interoperable prototypes have been implemented based on software
developed by BMW Group Research and Technology. This software defines
contents and exchange of messages and enables frictionless
communication between the vehicles. Results and experience from this
bilateral cooperation will be exploited within the Car-to-Car
Communication Consortium, which both manufacturers are actively
involved in. This consortium currently has as members eight leading
automobile manufacturers and twelve research partners. Building on
results from European and national research projects, it is pursuing a
common industry standard to implement Vehicle-to-X communication on a
harmonized radio frequency, possibly made available worldwide. This
kind of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication
opens up a new dimension of road safety and is yet another milestone in
the BMW ConnectedDrive concept, which connects driver, vehicle, and
environment through driver assistance systems, telematics and online
services. Motto: A well-networked driver is a well-informed driver and
hence a safer driver. GST The EU funded project "Global System
for Telematics" started in 2004 and brings together 47 partners
across Europe. Under the coordination of ERTICO, automobile
manufacturers, suppliers and research institutes are working on an
open, standardized end-to-end architecture for telematics services. In
seven subprojects and five test sites for field trials, the partners
are creating and validating an environment, in which innovative
telematics services can be developed and delivered cost-effectively.
www.gstforum.de www.ertico.com C2C-CC Founded by Audi AG, BMW AG,
DaimlerChrysler AG, and Volkswagen AG in 2004, the Car-to-Car
Communication Consortium today comprises eight leading automobile
manufacturers and twelve research partners working towards and industry
standard and worldwide frequency harmonization for Car-to-X
communication. Technological basis for the spontaneous exchange of
messages between vehicles is the Wireless LAN technology. Car-to-X
communication enables numerous potential applications in road safety.
Declared goal of the consortium: drivers of vehicles across all brands
should benefit from these in the future. www.car-2-car.org