Car-to-X-Communication – vs QNX – Copy or Standard by 2015

Welcome back everyone.

UPDATE: I’ve added an entry to this post at the bottom. Enjoy.

I figured I’d go back into technical gear once again and bring to you something related to  the QNX Neutrino kernel. However this is a post more focused on your cars … something that should be using QNX yet a drive towards to the future that may not use QNX.

Is QNX been sleeping? Too focused on NASA implementations and BB10 (or training BlackBerry employee SME’s to be proficient internal experts on BB10)? Have QNX as a company been sleeping at the wheel (pun intended, respectfully)?

First, lets undesrtand what the Car-to-X-Communication is shall we? The CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium (C2C-CC) is a nonprofit, industry driven organisation that consists of the following automotive manufacturers: Audi, BMW Group, Daimler, Fiat, Honda, Opel, Renault, Volvo Truck and Volkswagen – each offering their hardware and software suppliers and research institute knowledge.

In their own words the goal is …

The CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium (C2C-CC) is a nonprofit, industry driven organisation initiated by European vehicle manufacturers and supported by equipment suppliers, research organisations and other partners.

The C2C-CC is dedicated to the objective of further increasing road traffic safety and efficiency by means of cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) with Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication (V2V) supported by Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication (V2I).

In the back of your minds while you continue to read on, keep what I’ve bolded in the quote above, please.

Interesting … yet what does this mean to you a car owner and driver? What would this mean to non government controlled car insurance plans and legislation? In the words of the drivers.com site  …

We’re looking at a future filled with information bearing wireless waves, a world in which vehicles will exchange all kinds of information with one another and in which information will also be exchanged with infrastructure items such as bridges, traffic lights, signs and road curves.

Now we’re getting somewhere, yet this all sounds a bit familiar … a paragraph of words that just highlights on a concept already brought to us roughly 3 years ago, yet I can’t put my finger on it … oh yes now I recall – QNX – Imagined: Your car in the not-so-distant future.

Take a gander over here regarding what the ‘mission and objectives of the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium are‘.

The driver is provided with early information on traffic holdups or possible hitches
Communication with traffic infrastructure
Communication with other road users
Improved navigation
Downloading of information processed to suit the driver

There are two different scenarios for the establishment of Car-to-X technology, which Audi is helping to promote. One such scenario involves anonymized vehicle data being sent over the wireless network to a central backend. At this point the data is individually processed and the results sent to the individual cars.

The second solution involves data being transmitted from one car to another directly via Automotive WLAN, a special WLAN variant, which is used on a cross-manufacturer basis. Direct communication with the infrastructure, such as traffic lights, can also be set up. The new technology supports the use of a form of collective intelligence. In other words, vehicles and the infrastructure quickly, spontaneously and remotely set up a network. The issue with this is that a local WLAN is only useful in the real world with a range of 100-150meters in ideal conditions, add storm (thunder, heavy down pour of rain, snow storm, etc) this no longer reaches beyond 30 meters. We need a proven network with far greater range – something that can tell you a stop sign is hidden, a major construction project accidentally opened a city main gas line, sewer pipe in which a city block has been quarantined or blocked off; before getting within 100 meters (so another route can be calculated in time).

The issue with this is that a local WLAN is only useful in the real world with a range of 100-150meters in ideal conditions, add storm (thunder, heavy down pour of rain, snow storm, etc) this no longer reaches beyond 30 meters. We need a proven network with far greater range – something that can tell you a stop sign is hidden, a major construction project accidentally opened a city main gas line, sewer pipe in which a city block has been quarantined or blocked off; before getting within 100 meters (so another route can be calculated in time).

Currently the WLAN technology will be using something from Cisco NXP

Does this mean that we’ll be in cars that will be completely autonomous?

“Look mama, no hands” … no brains either! Completely autonomous driving is not the answer. Its great for public transportation, or for those that failed blood alcohol and still require a car to and from work for their families livelihood, but not for the average driver.

People love to drive and have control over their devices – I don’t foresee a major push for the car of the future that drives itself, however public transportation in terms of subway cars, buses, and streetcars this makes perfect sense. Then again the streetcar which is hugely a topic of debate in Toronto is completely stupid in a modern city: the current design used in Toronto doesn’t allow for those in wheelchairs or with walkers, like the elderly, ability to board them, and their tracks are in the middle of the street, with many service routes having stops at the edge of the road where you need to past car lanes to get to. Completely asinine in my mind.

Thorsten Heins

The future of mobile transportation needs to keep our drivers, riders, and pedestrians safe while increasing traffic efficiency. Traffic efficiency is important and critical, not just for the sake of reducing traffic congestion, reducing fuel consumption and emissions, or as a selling point for mayors to invite business and people to live in an ever growing metropolis … but to be able to manage all of this in a secure manner while delivering efficiencies in a UI that offers LESS distraction to drivers. THAT is the key power to this drive to mobile transportation automation.

Did you remember to keep “Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication (V2I)” in the back of your mind while reading thus far? You may recall another post of mine, RIM – BB10 True End-Game is QNX & NOC, specifically mentioning BlackBerry (RIM at the time of that article) looking towards the Machine-to-Machine business. Think of cars already enabled with QNX kernel, existing models for the past 15yrs could be retro upgraded with new sensors at a very cheap cost in order to provide local wireless communications with our smartphones, then through an existing, secure and proven global network (BlackBerry’s NOC combined with over 208 cellular wireless networks). Of course these vehicles already out number new cars in every country worldwide and can provide much more accurate data to an infrastructure than what Car-To-X (or Car-to-Car & Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication) can offer in just 2 years.

Has QNX been sleeping at the wheel? I don’t think so … I believe their ahead of the game and have much more experience in this field and may indeed work with the new entrance to establish working standards, leverage BlackBerry’s infrastructure and business contacts with wireless providers to properly implement this End Game Goal – Machine to Machine business, by BlackBerry. A key point to remember is everything QNX does with respect to car MMI enhancements, respects the brand!

UPDATE:

Ladies and gentleman …

I’m about 5 months late on this particular finding … I blame the popularity of CrackBerry.com showing of their specific interview with Dan Dodge for this. There is another, more in-depth QNX Car 2 CES 2012 presentation … with a unique surprise for BB10 device users. Check out the timeline beginning at 4:12 be ready.

During the 4:12 timeline till almost the end of the video … take note of what the QNX team have done, serving up HTML5 web app (runs in the browser on any smartphone) in the cloud connected to this car.

It can do the following:

control windows, lock the doors, honk the horn, tire pressure, view media player, stats on: tire pressure, fluid levels, etc.

Plot a route directly from the phone and it integrates on the cars Maps system in its MMI. (think about presenting a location from a meeting, then when you get to the car you’re ready to go – especially with Police directing traffic rushing you out of road parking).

As a bonus here is the making of the Bentley Continental QNX Car 2 Concept shown at CES 2013. And for the finally … QNX and Crank: Creating a digital light projection (DLP) HMI used in the center console within the Bentley. I’m VERY interested which software on OSX they where using, considering the heavy use of Apple Mac laptops and Mac Mini shown in both these videos. BlackBerry is not new at their employees using Mac’s either … which perplexes me about they firmwares for legacy and BB10 devices cannot be downloaded and locally installed using OSX without the need for Windows (Boot Camp or a VM) ?!

Sources:

Car-to-Car Org

http://car-to-car.org/

Cisco NXP

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4404231/Cisco–NXP-push-commercialization-of-Car-to-X-communication

Crackberry youtube “The QNX Bentley at CES 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-WKw2KBaE&feature=youtu.be

Drivers.com “What is Car to X Communication?”

http://www.drivers.com/article/1038/

Enterprising Minds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQtrXyeIhY

QNX  “Imagined: Your car in the not-so-distant future”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9AzUfSdKU

Serious Mobile “RIM – BB10 True End-Game is QNX & NOC!”

https://seriousmobile.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/rim-bb10-true-end-game-is-qnx-noc/

Volkswagen “Car-to-X”

http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/content/en/innovation/communication_and_networking/connected_world/car_to_x.html

Interesting Research Reading: BlackBerry M2M articles

Connected World Magazine

http://www.connectedworldmag.com/blog/?p=1187

Canadian Business

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/industries/technology-industry/rim-m2m-technology-may-help-save-company/

The Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/rogers-rides-the-m2m-wave/article7913607/