The new 5GCroCo innovation action will conduct large-scale trials of 5G technology for cooperative, connected and automated driving.

By the 5GCroCo Consortium

28 November 2018

5GCroCo (Fifth Generation Cross-Border Control), a 17-million Euro innovation action officially launched on 1^st November 2018, will enable the testing of 5G connectivity for the road environment in real-life scenarios. It will be deployed in the European 5G cross-border corridor which covers kilometres of motorway connecting the cities of Metz in France, Merzig in Germany, and Luxembourg.

Three use cases related to Cooperative Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) services enabled by 5G technologies will be tested in the corridor, namely: 1) anticipated cooperative collision avoidance, 2) generation and distribution of dynamic high-definition maps for automated driving, and 3) teleoperated driving.

The three-year initiative, which has received close to 13-million Euro in funding from the European Commission under the umbrella of the 5G Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP), is coordinated by the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC, in Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain). In particular, Dr. Jesus Alonso-Zarate, head of the Machine-to-Machine Communications Department of CTTC, will be the coordinator of 5GCroCo. This innovation action gathers 24 partners from seven European countries, including key organisations from both the telecom and the automotive worlds. 5GCroCo coordinates contributions from leading car manufacturers, tier-1 suppliers, road authorities, mobile network operators, telecom vendors, and academia.

5GCroCo will concentrate its large-scale trials in the 5G European corridor which connects cities in France, Germany, and Luxembourg, and is part of the pan-European network of 5G corridors now emerging thanks to a number of regional agreements. Under these agreements, hundreds of kilometres of European motorways have been allocated for automated driving tests. They cover scenarios up to the third level of automation (SAE Automated Driving Level 3), the stage where a car can operate by itself with a driver present under certain conditions.

These corridors are supported by the European Commission as part of its 5G Action Plan. This plan aims to ensure commercial deployment of 5G technologies by the end of this decade. As the first step, before large-scale deployment in the corridor, 5GCroCo will deploy local pilot schemes in Munich city centre, on the German A9 motorway and on the closed test track in Montlhéry, France, as well as in Barcelona city centre, where a cross-border city scenario will be emulated.

5GCroCo will validate core 5G technologies in challenging cross-border, cross-vendor, cross-car manufacturer and cross-operator scenarios, with a particular focus on cutting-edge technologies such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), enabled distributed computing, 5G New Radio, End-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) with Network Slicing, predictive QoS, and precise positioning.

In addition, 5GCroCo will explore innovative business models, and will contribute to the definition of the necessary policy and spectrum regulation to guarantee the success of 5G for CCAM services. The impact of 5GCroCo is also expected at standardisation level for both the telecom and the automotive industries (3GPP, ISO, etc.).

5GCroCo aims to contribute to the consolidation of Europe’s leading role for 5G technology, paving the way for the commercial deployment of 5G for cooperative, connected, and automated mobility in Europe and worldwide. In addition, this innovation action will provide end consumers with new use cases such as tele-operated driving and high definition map generation and distribution for automated driving in multinational environments.