The Southwest England-based driverless car research project FLOURISH has completed research which members say gives new insights into the ability for connected vehicles to communicate with other CVs and roadside and digital infrastructure.
The FLOURISH car trials explore the minimum conditions needed for data to be effectively transferred, focussing on the level of connectivity required to communicate with integrity, to respond to real-time traffic events and to identify if the source of information is trustworthy.
The researchers say that, with its varied topography, the results from the city of Bristol are directly transferrable to other cities across the country, in both even and more challenging terrain. The project is testing ever more complex scenarios to assure the recommendations it makes and their application elsewhere.
Robert Piechocki, Professor of Wireless Systems at the University of Bristol, explained, “Digitally connected vehicles have the potential to revolutionise the cities we live in and the way we travel. Our research into the optimum conditions for the robust, effective and resilient transfer of data is the cornerstone of a new customer journey experience.
“By enabling the management of a network of driverless cars, we can help transport authorities to improve road safety, ease congestion and tackle the challenge of improving air quality, by offering a genuine alternative to manually driven cars.”
In addition, the project is also exploring the potential for connected and autonomous vehicles to communicate with each other and the surrounding infrastructure using frequencies typically associated with WiFi. Usually seen as an enabler of indoor connectivity, its low frequencies can enable data to be effectively transmitted for longer distances.
