There are plenty of automakers talking about how vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, technology will fundamentally change the relationship between cars, drivers, and the world they exist in – making it safer and smarter.
However, behind the scenes, companies such as Iteris are making that change happen.
Auto Futures caught up with Todd Kreter, Iteris’ Senior Vice President and General Manager for Advanced Sensor Technologies to find out more.
Can you explain what Iteris offers and why its V2X technology is better than its competitors?
At Iteris, our strength is in both the breadth and depth of the smart mobility infrastructure management solutions that form our ClearMobility Platform. We design and develop the smart sensors that detect and differentiate between vehicles, bikes and pedestrians at the intersection. We also offer mobility intelligence software solutions that take the data from these sensors and other sources to provide analytics and insights to those responsible for managing traffic. And we have strong relationships with automotive OEMs and other technology providers that develop on-board vehicle and roadside technologies that are integral to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. This combination of capabilities and relationships is what has helped to position Iteris at the forefront of V2X technologies.
Why is V2X important for the next generation of smarter mobility and transport safety?
Connected vehicle (CV) and by extension V2X technologies enable cars, trucks, pedestrians, cyclists, commercial vehicle fleets and intelligent road infrastructure to communicate directly with each other. It is inevitable that vehicles, like humans, will be increasingly connected and interconnected, which is why continuing to develop innovative V2X solutions will be key to ensuring that mobility is smarter and more efficient while improving safety and sustainability at the same time.
The company was recently selected by the University of Michigan for an initiative looking at road safety – what will this initiative entail?
Our project with the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute involves Iteris joining forces with partners from the public and private sectors, including Continental, Ford, Toyota, Qualcomm, the City of Ann Arbor and Purdue University. The initiative will entail Iteris equipping more than 20 signalized intersections in Ann Arbor, Michigan with our industry-leading V2X-enabled detection technology as part of UMTRI’s connected vehicle and smart intersections program.
How is Iteris working with large OEMs including Ford and Toyota, as well as Qualcomm, to develop V2X technology?
Our V2X detection technology uses information generated by infrastructure sensors to enable an evolving set of cooperative perception capabilities. In addition to sharing a connected vehicle’s location with other V2X-enabled devices, cooperative perception messaging could enable the vehicle or infrastructure sensors to also share what they sense – a pedestrian or car, for example – with the rest of its connected environment. In developing these interconnected communications technologies we work with large OEMs, including Continental, Ford, Toyota and Qualcomm to design, test and validate the technologies to ensure they are safe and effective, and compatible with the widest range of in-vehicle systems.
How far away are we from V2X becoming commonplace in passenger cars and vehicles on the roads?
The communications capabilities required to receive and send information to the cloud are already standard issue in most new vehicles, while the capability to send and receive signals to roadside infrastructure is become increasingly prevalent in vehicles with every passing year. We expect that within this decade we will see the widespread adoption and implementation of V2X solutions in the mobility infrastructure across the country, due to the demand and need for these technological solutions to improve efficiency and safety in our transportation network.
