Telstra, in partnership with Cohda Wireless, has successfully conducted Australia’s first test of Vehicle–to–Pedestrian (V2P) technology over a mobile network in South Australia.

Telstra, in partnership with Cohda Wireless, has successfully conducted Australia’s first test of Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) technology over a mobile network in South Australia.

The trial demonstrated vehicles interacting directly with pedestrians’ and cyclists’ mobile phones providing early-warning collision detection and alerts via an application installed on their mobiles.

The technology was tested using some common scenarios that occur every day in Australia – a car and a cyclist approaching a blind corner, a car reversing out of a driveway, and a car approaching a pedestrian crossing.

Chief Technology Officer Håkan Eriksson said that Telstra’s Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) project, which includes Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) in addition to V2P, seeks to make Australian roads safer, more efficient, and better-prepared for the future of autonomous vehicles.

“The most important outcome of V2X technology is the increased safety for road users, as the impact of human error can be minimised by helping vehicles communicate with each other and react to their surroundings,” Mr Eriksson said.

“This is the first time V2P technology has been trialled in Australia on a 4G network, and is an important step on the journey to fully-autonomous vehicles on Australian roads. This follows our successful trials of V2I in October 2016 and V2V in February 2017, also completed in partnership with Cohda.

“As operators of Australia’s largest and fastest mobile network, we believe Telstra’s 4G and future 5G networks can play a vital role in supporting the faster rollout of intelligent transport systems and V2X applications, making implementation of the technology cheaper and more efficient.”

Cohda Wireless CEO Paul Gray said that what Cohda and Telstra have achieved highlights the impact V2X technology can have on our community.

“Giving vehicles 360-degree situational awareness and sharing real-time driving information is the only way we can create safer roads for the future,” Mr Gray said.

“Cohda’s ongoing partnership with Telstra also demonstrates Cohda’s ability to deliver Cellular-V2X (CV2X) solutions, an important part of the complete V2X system.”

Telstra was one of the recipients from the first round of the South Australian Government’s $10 million Future Mobility Lab Fund, to boost local testing, research and development of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies.

South Australian Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan said the testing was another exciting development for the State which has been championing the use of advanced technologies on our roads.

“Together Telstra and Cohda Wireless have been leading the charge in the development of this groundbreaking technology which will save many lives and make our roads safer for everyone,” Mr Mullighan said.

“With this industry expected to be worth $90 billion worldwide by 2030, it’s vital that we encourage and support businesses locally to get involved on the ground floor.”

Telstra, Cohda Wireless and the South Australia Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure are all partners of the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI), a partnership of government, industry and academic partners working collaboratively to research, investigate and help inform the development of robust national policy, legislation, regulation and operational procedures and processes to bring driverless vehicles safely and successfully to Australian roads.