Cohda Wireless to produce 'smart infrastructure' roadside units

South Australian technology company Cohda Wireless announced overnight its collaboration with global giant Siemens to develop and produce Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) roadside units.

Following their numerous developments into 'connected vehicles' over the last couple of years, Cohda's official release outlines its 'smart infrastructure', which shares information such as road signs and traffic lights between cars and other 'intelligent' vehicles. This is meant to increase the quality and reliability of information available to drivers about their immediate environment, as well as other vehicles and road users.

With its V2I roadside units, Siemens expects to implement infrastructure such as intelligent road signs and traffic lights. The roadside units (RSUs) are WLAN-based radio modules that securely transmit important information such as speed limits, icy road warnings or other hazards, traffic jams and construction warnings within fractions of a second to passing vehicles and traffic control centres.

CEO of Cohda Wireless, Dr. Paul Gray, said Cohda's collaboration with Siemens creates a greater certainty for organisations planning to implement connected vehicle technology.

"Cohda is very pleased to be supplying Siemens with our V2X products," he said.

"The collaborations of two leaders in their respective markets is good news."

Under an agreement signed by both companies, Cohda Wireless will develop and produce the RSUs for Siemens, allowing this 'smart infrastructure' to communicate with connected vehicles.

Last year, Cohda supplied half of the gear for the trial of vehicle-to-vehicle technology on American public roads in a program approved by the US Department of Transportation.

Dr. Gray has previously predicted that this vehicle to vehicle (V2V) technology could be available in global markets "as early as 2016".

Work surrounding Cooperative-Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) is continuing apace. In the truck world, Daimler recently trialled the world's first series-production autonomous truck on a public autobahn in Germany. In the future, such vehicles will use C-ITS technology to communicate with traffic lights and a variety of infrastructure, along with other vehicles, to ease traffic congestion, avoid potential dangers and minimise fuel usage, thereby also reducing harmful emissions.