Cohda Wireless’ smart streetlights concept

Cohda Wireless has shown off a new idea at ITS World Congress Copenhagen 2018, a smart streetlight system that will adjust luminosity to warn drivers of vehicle breakdowns in the vicinity of the system.

Cohda’s proposed system would alert drivers of incidents in the immediate vicinity by increasing the luminosity of the streetlights from 20% to 100% intensity.

“Broken-down vehicles present a significant risk to all road users, more especially on freeways and motorways when it’s dark, or where there are blind rises or bends,” said Dr Gray.

“Our concept proposes that an on-board application in the vehicle sends a notification via DSRC to the nearest streetlight to the car that has broken down. The streetlight, which has been fitted with hardware that receives and interprets the message, sends a message to the controller of the smart street light, typically in the cloud, which in turn responds by increasing the luminosity of the streetlight until the vehicle leaves the scene under its own power or is towed away.”

“There are many smart streetlight initiatives around the world that are focused on connecting streetlight infrastructure and enhancing control functionality. This is about Vehicle-To-Infrastructure technology plugging into these networks to enhance road safety.”

“It’s a relatively simple concept, but it could save lives,” added Dr Gray.

C-V2X software development kit

Cohda has also used the 2018 ITS World Congress to announce a C-V2X software development kit, that allows users with embedded Linux experience to compile and run C-V2X applications on the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset.

Fabien Cure, Chief Engineer for Cohda Wireless, said, “the availability of the kit will accelerate the commercial introduction of C-V2X technology and will be of particular interest to OEMs given its pre-production readiness, and Cohda’s experience in previously launching a complete software stack in a production vehicle (2017 Cadillac CTS).”

“Our development kit demonstrates our ability to deliver C-V2X commercial solutions and offer the highest quality EU and US-based C-V2X software,” explained Mr. Cure. “This development kit allows Cohda customer platforms to get access to production ready applications and reduce even further their time to market.”

“Our V2X and Connected and Automated Vehicle solutions have always been hardware- and radio-agnostic, and we trust that the introduction of the C-V2X software development kit will be eagerly received by proponents of C-V2X technology as a medium for the widespread integration of
connected vehicle technology, and that our advanced capabilities will be appreciated,” added Mr. Cure.