Seat and Telefónica pilot connected cars for safer driving

Seat and Telefónica have teamed up with a host of other players for a real-world pilot of two 5G-assisted vehicles in Barcelona. The aim is to test the safety implications of the connected technology. The pilot project is framed within the 5G Barcelona initiative, which aims to establish the Catalan capital as the reference 5G hub in Europe. 

The OEM and the telecom provider are collaborating with half a dozen players, including Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies. Both participating vehicles and their surroundings were equipped with technology enabling an exchange of information.

An essential part of the setup is C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) technology that allows the vehicle to communicate with all elements around it (including other cars and road users, traffic lights and signals). Seat contributed an Ateca and an Arona, equipped with the latest technology for issuing warnings to drivers, which Telefónica provided end-to-end connectivity and – in a first – opened up its network for applications by the other participants. 

The pilot will examine three use cases:

• Detection of pedestrians at zebra crossings by thermal cameras, which will alert the cars of the pedestrians' presence.
• Detection of cyclists when turning right, via geolocated bicycles which report their exact location.
• Detection of non-moving cars on roads with low visibility, thanks to direct car-to-car communication. 

In addition to these safety use cases, this is also the world’s first use case of 5G in-car entertainment including the download of 4K contents through 5G. 

More on Seat reveals at #MWC19 here and here. More about #MWC19 itself here.