| |
 |
| Photo credit: AFP |
| An autonomous car which can be driven using an iPhone through a Wi-Fi connection |
The Fully Networked Car@Geneva Motor Show*,
held on 3–4 March 2010, ended with participants
calling for better cross-sector standards collaboration
in order to facilitate the deployment of technologies
for intelligent transport systems (ITS).
Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau said: “There is a will
from manufacturers to implement these technologies.
However, so far, there is no real breakthrough in
terms of standards needed to roll out ITS on a global
scale. Global car manufacturers don’t want to create
different versions of these technologies for every different
market. They don’t want regional or national
standards, they want global standards. ITU and its
World Standards Cooperation (WSC) partners, the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
and the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC), are willing and able to provide these standards.”
New services and applications may be the selling
points that will win car makers an advantage in
the depressed market following the global economic
downturn. “Today's communication capabilities give
cars the potential to foresee and avoid collisions, navigate
the quickest route to their destination, make
use of up-to-the-minute traffic reports, identify the
nearest available parking slot, alert the emergency
services, monitor air pollution, minimize carbon emissions,
and provide multimedia communications,” said
Mr Johnson.
The involvement of ITU, ISO and IEC is seen as critical
to ease bottlenecks resulting — in part — from
poor communication between overlapping sectors;
automotive, ITS players, telecommunication suppliers
and operators. One conclusion of an Executive
Session at the Fully Networked Car@Geneva Motor
Show was that competition
between standards bodies was
unwelcome.
A large amount of resources
has been invested in
research and development,
but harmonization of the
many standards that exist at
a proprietary or regional level
is missing. This lack of global
standards is considered to be
an impediment to a large scale
deployment of ITS services and
applications. While most agree
that the technologies are at
an advanced stage of development,
participants agreed
that clearer views are needed
on what standardization work
is being done and where; user,
regulator and supplier liability
and privacy concerns; business
and payment models; interoperability
requirements and
who owns them.
This year’s workshop, the
fifth to be organized by WSC
(a partnership between ISO,
IEC and ITU) at the Geneva
International Motor Show 2010 focused on the latest
developments in ITS technology, including network
requirements for electric cars. It represented a unique
opportunity to strengthen dialogue between ITS key
players, in particular with the motor industry.
Held during the 2nd Press Day and the first public
day of the motor show, the event — which attracted
over 120 participants this year — represents
a matchless opportunity for
experts and executives from
the car industry, ICT community,
governments, research
and development institutes,
academia to share their vision
and strategies.
Speakers at a special
Executive Session at the Fully
Networked Car@Geneva
Motor Show event included
Christoph Huss, Vice President
of BMW and President of
the International Federation
of Automotive Engineering
Societies (FISITA), who gave
the keynote address (see Viewpoint); Juhani Jääskeläinen,
European Commission;
Raymond Resendes, Chief,
Intelligent Technologies
Research Division, United
States National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration;
Samuel Loyson, Orange,
France; David Schutt, SAE
International, United States;
Yasuro Nakanomori, OKI,
Japan; Russ Shields, Chairman,
Ygomi and Reinhard Scholl, ITU Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau.
| |
|
 |
| photo credit: ITU/V. Martin |
Robert Steele,
ISO Secretary-General |
In his opening remarks, Rob Steele, ISO Secretary-
General, on behalf of WSC, said: “There is the need
for standardization of essential technologies to provide
the solid base for further innovation and the
economies of scale for commercialization of technologies…
Most interestingly of all, is the urgent need
to consider the interoperability
of all of this technology not only
in the car, but in the wider infrastructure
that is needed to support
this revolution”.
Information obtained from
electronic devices as part of
an in-vehicle network is critical
to ITS services and applications,
including emergency
telecommunications. Currently,
the way of extracting the vehicle
information differs by
manufacture, model and chassis
type. Standards are being researched in support
of a “Vehicle Gateway” that will allow all consumer
devices to work in harmony in all vehicles and with
all infrastructure. Work on this in ITU is focused
on a “Question” within ITU–T’s Study Group 16.
Contributions from ITU’s membership are being
sought on a “Vehicle Gateway” platform for telecommunication/
ITS services/applications.
Since ITS applications will have to rely mainly on
existing infrastructure, next-generation networks
(NGN) will play a key role for their deployment. This
is currently considered in the framework of fixed-mobile convergence in ITU–T Study Group 13, the lead
group on future networks. One of the sessions of
the workshop recommended that a joint ISO/ITU–T
group on in-vehicle architecture and protocols take
the work forward.
Participants in one technical session concluded
that quality and naturalness of all speech services
need to be increased to reduce driver distraction.
Agreement was reached that work on a standardsbased
framework for dialogue between user and
device is needed, with the ITU–T Focus Group on
Car Communications (ITU–T FG
CarCOM) identified as the appropriate
place for this work.
An electric future
Today, with the increasing
deployment of electric vehicles,
ICT have a significant role to
play in areas such as the careful
management of battery status,
warranty concerns and driver
behaviour. Given the potential
of these new technologies for
both the automotive and the
ICT industries, it is essential for the different parties
to understand the requirements for fully networked
cars and agree on the solutions to be provided by the
network platforms. In many cases existing telecommunication
infrastructure can be used.
As electric vehicles begin to find their way to our
driveways and garages, knowing what is involved in
charging their batteries becomes crucial. The development
of smart power grids will also be vital to support
the adoption of electric cars which, according to
some proposals, can also act as storage capacity for
electricity. The scale of this challenge was highlighted
in one of the presentations to the workshop, citing
work under way in the United States.
According to this presentation, the electric grid
in the United States is owned and operated by over
3100 utilities, using equipment and systems provided
by thousands of suppliers, delivering power
to hundreds of millions of users and billions of end
devices. The transformation of this infrastructure into
an “energy Internet” is a huge undertaking requiring
an unprecedented level of cooperation and coordination
across the private and public sectors as well
as across industry sectors. A robust, interoperable
framework of technical standards is the key to making
this possible.
ITU is responding to this challenge by the formation
of a new ITU–T Focus Group that will help develop
the necessary global standards to hasten this
move to smart grids. The newly formed group will
look at the networking between use of current control,
metering, charging and electricity distribution
systems.
| |
 |
| Photo credit: ITU/V.Martin |
| The GreenGT prototype electric
sports car, made in Switzerland.
This two-seater is claimed to be
the first all-electric racing car
with a Formula One carbon fibre
chassis |
GreenGT: an all-electric racing car made in Switzerland
A special feature of the workshop was the
GreenGT prototype electric sports car, presented by
Jean-François Weber, founding partner of GreenGT
SA, Switzerland. This two-seater is claimed to be the
first all-electric racing car with a Formula One carbon
fibre chassis. The GreenGT can do 10 to 15 laps of a
typical Grand Prix track at race pace. According to Mr
Weber, the car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in
about 4.3 seconds, and has a top speed of 285 km/h.
The GreenGT is carbon neutral, as its batteries are
recharged by solar power. Two battery packs, producing
a total of 35 kWh feed electricity to two synchronous
three-phase motors of 150 kW peak power
each. After initial testing in May 2009, the GreenGT
made its debut on the Castellet High-Tech Test Track
in Southern France in June.
An electric car has a very different weight distribution
from that of a normal car, and engineers had
to tune the chassis to cope with the heavy batteries.
Electric cars also produce tremendous amounts of
torque, and the GreenGT team had to make sure that
the gearbox would withstand the enormous power
it has to transfer to the rear wheels. Tests gave the
team an idea of how long the car’s batteries would
last, and whether the car’s electronics and safety
equipment were working correctly. The GreenGT
passed all the tests without problems.
The GreenGT was later displayed in the “Green
Pavillion” at the Geneva International Motor Show.
This type of car could race in Le Mans when rules will
allow full electric cars.
New title for “The Fully Networked Car workshop”
following agreement of the Geneva International Motor Show to support the event for the next three years
|