Ford is studying the way robots in space use multiple wireless network links to stay connected with mission control and hopes to use lessons learned for the next generation of connected cars.
Under a three-year research project with St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in Russia, Ford hopes to assess the best ways to enable vehicle communications with other vehicles, the cloud and infrastructure elements such as buildings and traffic lights--all with an eye toward reducing traffic accidents, easing traffic congestion and delivering faster, more accurate emergency responses.
|
Ford Technical Leader Oleg Gusikhin details the three-year study in this video. |
Ford is particularly interested in network redundancy and creating fallback options for failed networks by blending multiple networking technologies including dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), LTE wireless broadband and mesh networking.
"In a crash, for example, a vehicle could have the option to communicate an emergency though a DSRC, LTE or a mesh network based on the type of signal, speed and robustness required to reach emergency responders as quickly as possible," said Oleg Gusikhin, technical leader in systems analytics for Ford.
The carmaker noted that if an accident were to cause vehicle-to-cloud communications to break down, a vehicle might still have access to a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications network, enabling an emergency message to be sent via V2V to a nearby vehicle and then between vehicles and infrastructures until it reached emergency services.
For more:
- see this Ford release
- see this GigaOM article
- see this Automotive News article
Related articles:
Audi's LTE-connected car coming to the U.S. next spring
AT&T, SiriusXM and Nissan collaborate on connected car initiative
Sprint, IBM use the cloud to link smartphones and cars
GSMA: Every new car will be a 'connected car' in 2025
GM offering LTE in most 2015 vehicles; EU mandates eCall