Self-driving vehicles could provide more than just an accurate way to get where you're going or give you more time to enjoy the ride; with the help of 5G, they may also improve safety conditions across the transportation system.
There's little question that reducing the risks of driving has become an urgent global priority. For example, approximately 1.3 million people die as a result of traffic accidents every year. More than half of those fatalities involve vulnerable road users, including cyclists and pedestrians.
Even when many people in the U.S. spent less time commuting to work in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation only got worse. More than 42,000 people died in vehicle crashes in 2020 in the U.S., a jump of 8% compared to the prior year.
Though the cause of accidents can vary widely, many road accidents in the U.S. are due to human error.
Self-driving vehicles are designed with technologies to monitor road conditions that could augment human capabilities to help avoid those errors. These technologies include systems that provide advance warning of risks, and in some cases, features that autonomously operate the vehicle to avoid danger.
V2X technology and the safety of self-driving vehicles
While some next-gen vehicles are being designed to work almost entirely without human intervention, other automotive designs continue to give drivers some control.
These connected cars are able to automatically communicate and share data back and forth with other systems outside the car. Some of the more safety-sensitive applications are described as vehicle-to-everything (V2X), which gather data to provide near real-time insight about what's going on within and around a connected car. V2X could eventually help to deliver improvements in roadway safety.
With edge computing, autonomous vehicles could become a repository of data. This is where 5G’s potential for fast speeds, low latency and massive capacity can play an integral role in furthering V2X safety features.
Self-driving car accident prevention features
The range of 5G-powered features that could make self-driving vehicles safer—and reduce the chance of a self-driving car accident—include:
Blind spot detection
As self-driving vehicles pick up speed on the road, the ability to have complete 360-degree visibility around the car is an enormous asset in traveling safely.
Blind spot detection technology, consisting of either blind spot monitoring or blind spot camera technology allows a car to gather data about objects that might come into its path and that drivers otherwise might not see. Neither sensors nor blind spot detection need 5G to be effective today. When combined in the future, however, connected road infrastructure (such as 5G-enabled traffic monitoring sensors, smart traffic lights and motorways) can help reduce the processing time for alerts or warnings, thereby allowing for data to be exchanged in near-real time to help increase safety for self-driving cars.
Collision avoidance system
It sounds simple enough: Train self-driving vehicles to scan the road ahead and if there's another car or obstacle in the way, apply the brakes. Yet, automatic emergency braking (AEB) requires sophisticated use of sensors, cameras, and in some cases, the ability for vehicles to "talk" to each other.
One study suggested that rear AEB could result in 10% fewer collision claims. 5G's high data transfer rates and throughput could help facilitate V2X communication for collision detection, enabling self-driving vehicles to make more timely decisions.
Location services
Drivers have gotten used to relying on GPS to guide them on unfamiliar routes, but Real Time Kinematics (RTK) is paving the way for far more powerful location services. Verizon has partnered with HERE Technologies, for example, to develop high-precision mapping that leverages RTK and 5G Edge to let connected cars quickly identify other vehicles, pedestrians or other objects and where they might move.
As connected cars continue to advance, the conversation about a possible self-driving car accident may subside. The focus may instead shift to the possibilities of how 5G can help unlock the full potential of the technology behind self-driving cars and the possible safety improvements.
Discover exactly how safe self-driving cars are and the various levels of autonomy these vehicles have.
The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.