At the third World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference in Shanghai on September 16, members of the 5G Automotive Association – SAIC Motor, China mobiles, Huawei and Shanghai International Automobiles City – announced that the world’s first 5G-based smart transportation demonstration project will be carried out in Jiading, Shanghai next year and will be open to the public.

The four parties will cooperate in 5G internet communications, smart driving, smart mobility, supporting infrastructure and operation guarantee, and pilot the 5G-based intelligent driving and smart mobility services based on people-vehicle-road coordination in the 5G smart transportation demonstration zone in Shanghai International Automobiles City, so as to provide efficient, intelligent, secure and convenient one-stop mobility service for people.

At the conference, SAIC Motor was granted one of the first licenses in China for intelligent connected vehicle application. It is the first time in Shanghai to conduct commercial operation of intelligent connected vehicles. The company also showcased its independently developed third generation intelligent driving car at the conference. The car is expected to have level-4 automatic driving functions in urban areas.

The 5G network supports real-time mass communications with its fast speed, strong connectivity and low latency. It transmits several gigabytes of data per second, which is a hundred times faster than 4G; it supports the interconnectivity of a million devices simultaneously within an area of one square kilometer; it has only 1 millisecond of latency, one fiftieth that of 4G. Based on 5G technologies, an intelligent connected vehicle will be able to realize real-time interaction with other vehicles, people, and roads. Mass data will be transmitted to a cloud platform and sent back to the vehicle after cloud computing analysis. In this way, 5G technologies make mobility smarter and easier.

The 5G Automotive Association, or 5GAA, is a cross-industry technical alliance formed by world-class vehicle manufacturers, chip providers and communications companies. It aims at providing end-to-end solutions for smart transportation, smart mobility and smart city. With the support of the four aforementioned parties, the world’s first mass-produced 5G intelligent connected vehicle, developed by SAIC Motor, will be launched next year, thus realizing smart transportation through V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure), and V2P (Vehicle-to-Person) technologies.

With V2V, SAIC Motor’s 5G vehicle will be able to warn the vehicle behind of an emergency brake, share information with the vehicle ahead, and avoid collisions with other vehicles when arriving at a crossroads, among other things. With V2I, the car will have start & stop guidance, receive real-time traffic lights information, and receive a recommended green wave speed. It will also receive a warning when coming across road construction, arriving at special roads such as a school road or reversible road, when there is a speed limit, or when there may be risks that it will collide with people or another vehicle. With V2P, the car will receive a warning if pedestrians are coming across a road ahead.

SAIC Motor’s third generation intelligent driving car displayed at the conference is equipped with an independently developed in-depth learning algorithm, intelligent driving, and machine vision. Supported by millimeter-wave radar, lidar, as well as SAIC Motor's high-definition map and multi-perception fusion positioning technique, the car can realize 360-degree perception, planning and decision-making in urban areas. In addition, the car is also equipped with SAIC Motor’s intelligent drive decision controller i-ECU, and a high-level, high-performance, low-cost real-time computing platform for level-4 intelligent driving vehicles that is based on core algorithms for AI enhanced perception, route planning, decision control and trajectory tracking.

Vehicles keep upgrading thanks to the integration of information and communications technologies with the real economy. SAIC Motor will continue to work with partners to innovate and provide customers with better products and services.