One of the USA’s leading providers of intelligent transportation infrastructure technology, Applied Information Inc. (AII), has announced that the deployment and testing of Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) connected vehicle (CV) technology is underway on public roads surrounding the Infrastructure Automotive Technology Laboratory (iATL) in Georgia.
The deployment and testing began after the USA’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an experimental license for infrastructure and mobile C-V2X deployments within a five-mile (8km) radius of the iATL, located in the city of Alpharetta, which lies to the north of metropolitan Atlanta. Testing and deployment will occur throughout an approximately 78.5-square-mile (203 sq km) area anchored by the iATL in Fulton County, covering the cities of Alpharetta, Milton and Roswell. The FCC’s experimental license ‘will allow testing of V2I applications for potential benefits, and systematic improvements of the technology’. AII says the first 55 traffic signals in the area have already been connected with C-V2X technology, with more to follow.
Within the area covered by the FCC license, there are approximately 130 traffic signals and 11 school zones, all of which can provide safety messages to connected and autonomous vehicles through C-V2X. Additional use cases include developing and testing safety applications involving vulnerable road users, temporary work zones, school and transit bus stop safety and proximity alerts to emergency vehicles on a call. The project will see the deployment of AII’s groundbreaking ‘hybrid’ technology that encompasses all three connected vehicle communication platforms including: 4G LTE wireless broadband, Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), and C-V2X.
The C-V2X ecosystem will be controlled by Applied Information’s Glance Smart City Supervisory platform, which enables cities to manage all their traffic and ITS assets on one web-based application. Using cellular networks, the Glance platform will be able to operate and manage smart traffic signals, school zone flashing beacons, emergency vehicle pre-emption, transit and freight priority systems, and other ITS equipment. Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians will also be able to download AII’s TravelSafely smartphone app for free, which will connect them to the new technology within the study area, offering warnings of potentially dangerous road conditions and traffic light Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT) information.
Sponsored by Applied Information, the iATL is the world’s first private-sector facility for developing connected vehicle applications for both vehicles and traffic control devices such as traffic signals. The primary function of the iATL is to serve as an engineering technical facility for testing connected vehicle application functionality and performance between the transportation infrastructure and motor vehicles, the infrastructure and vulnerable road users, motor vehicles and vulnerable road users and other configurations. The iATL also serves as a training centre for transportation professionals and first responders using connected vehicle technology.
“The grant by the FCC enables, for the first time, automakers, technology companies and roadway operators to collaborate and to test a wide range of safety applications provided by C-V2X on public roads and in real traffic,” explained AII’s president, Bryan Mulligan. “With the opportunity to connect to well over 150 traffic control devices, this is a unique opportunity to make real improvements in safety and mobility on our streets and highways.”
