Siemens Mobility Inc. in the USA has announced it has received OmniAir Certification for its Sitraffic ESCoS roadside unit (RSU), making the device the first roadside unit to receive OmniAir’s third-party commercial, connected vehicle certification for V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communications.
The OmniAir Consortium is the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification in ITS, tolling, IoT (Internet of Things) technologies and connected vehicles, with its certification program providing third-party qualified accredited laboratory testing and validation of DSRC-based V2X devices and test tools.
The OmniAir certification program delivers an important level of assurance to Tier 1 suppliers; automotive OEMs; and local, state and federal departments of transportation (DOTs) looking to deploy V2X technology. With such a new, disruptive technology being deployed, it is critical to ensure a level of compliance with industry protocol standards and specifications. Third-party certification for conformance and interoperability of V2X devices are a necessary step for the public and elected officials to fully embrace connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs).
Siemens’s Sitraffic ESCoS unit is one of the few RSUs that currently meets the US Department of Transportation’s FHWA specification version 4.1. With OmniAir’s third-party certification, the Siemens RSU is now well-positioned to become the established standard and a key component for V2X device communications.
The Siemens RSU detects information from infrastructure such as traffic signals, crosswalks or highways, and then turns it into a transmitted message to oncoming vehicles equipped with onboard units (OBUs) receiving a dedicated short-range communications signal, producing video and audio warnings within the vehicles. In turn, the RSU can also process the location of equipped vehicles and provide them via the RSU to a Central Management System to coordinate the traffic in the intersection and throughout the region.
The newly-certified RSU is currently being used in many key showcases for connected vehicle technology, including key USDOT CV pilot projects in Tampa and New York City. Siemens RSU recently successfully completed the USDOT CV Pilots Interoperability Testing as the only RSU representing the THEA (Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority) and NYCDOT pilots. Siemens is also a member of the USDOT Affiliated Test Bed for Connected Vehicle technologies, a group pursuing wide-spread deployment of wireless communication systems between vehicles and road infrastructure. As a supplier of both CV and ITS equipment, the company is also working with cities including Tampa (Florida), New York (NY State), Las Vegas (Nevada), Anaheim (California), Columbus (Ohio), and Madison (Wisconsin) to design and deploy these types of intelligent systems.
“This announcement firmly puts us at the forefront of V2X technology,” said Marcus Welz, head of ITS at Siemens Mobility. “Everybody is eagerly waiting for V2X technology to become more widely available for use and with this announcement we have reached another key milestone in standardization and interoperability. Our certified roadside units, combined with our readily-available suite of Connected Vehicle Applications, enable cities to significantly increase safety and reduce congestion.”
Jason Conley, executive director of the OmniAir Consortium, commented, “We have developed a robust, vehicle-to-everything certification program focused on delivering trusted, interoperable devices to the market. Siemens Mobility is the world’s first company to have a roadside unit earn certification. Deploying agencies should feel confident in requesting OmniAir Certified V2X devices in their large-scale deployment projects, after this historic announcement.”
