COHDA WIRELESS, SPECTRUM FIFTYNINE AND NXP DEMONSTRATE PROXIMITY DETECTION TECHNOLOGY FOR V2P

Global leader in connected autonomous vehicle technology, Cohda Wireless, in collaboration with NXP® Semiconductors and Spectrum FiftyNine B.V. has demonstrated a Vehicle-To-Pedestrian (V2P) proximity detection solution at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg.

The technology, which comprises a wearable electronic tag which can be mounted on a cyclist’s helmet or attached to a backpack or clothing accessory, alerts connected vehicles to the presence of vulnerable road users through ranging, providing proximity warnings to the vehicle.

Cohda VP Business Development Mr. Bernd Luebben believes the system represents a practical and highly interoperable solution for incorporation into a connected intelligent transport system (C-ITS).

“Invariably, accidents comprising pedestrians and cyclists involve an element of surprise and that’s what we are attempting to address with this technology,” explained Mr. Luebben.

“For example, a pedestrian might step out into traffic from behind a truck, or a bus has obscured the presence of a cyclist and the driver only realises that the cyclist is there when a collision is unavoidable. It’s this non-line-of-sight application that is particularly beneficial.”

The solution demonstrated by Cohda, NXP and Spectrum FiftyNine sees the vehicle receive warnings based on proximity, with the driver being alerted to the presence of the vulnerable road-users on the basis of safe, close or critical distance, raising the awareness of the driver so that he or she can take the appropriate action to avoid a collision.

Similar tags are used in mining and other industrial environments, where those demonstrated by Cohda are interoperable with Cohda’s world-leading V2X on-board units and/or roadside units, and have a range of several hundred metres.

“A workable solution to plug vulnerable road users into a C-ITS is long overdue,” added Mr Luebben. “Especially given that collisions involving this demographic are so common and often end in tragedy.”

Huanyu Gu, Senior Product Marketing Manager ADAS at NXP said that a strong ecosystem and partnerships are crucial for the continuous development of V2X.

“Use cases like vehicle-to-pedestrian make clear that all road users can benefit from the proven V2X/DSRC technology and chipsets that are already in standard use in selected passenger car models today,” said Mr. Gu.

Martijn Broens of Spectrum FiftyNine described the initiative as a milestone development.

“This is the first major step bringing vulnerable road user awareness to connected intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) and can help bring the number of casualties down,” added Mr. Broens.

Cohda Wireless is an Australian head-quartered company with offices in China, Europe and the US. Its V2X (Vehicle-To-Everything) solutions have been applied in trials all over the world to make road transport safer, green and less congested and it is the first and only company to have a complete V2X software stack deployed in two production vehicle platforms.

ENDS

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