The successful adoption of vehicle to infrastructure technologies is expected to significantly reduce traffic congestion, reduce vehicle accidents and lower auto-related pollution.

Under an agreement signed by the companies, Cohda Wireless will develop and produce RSUs for Siemens, enabling this smart infrastructure to communicate with connected vehicles. It will also see Siemens base its Sitraffic RSU upon Cohda’s market-leading MK5 V2X family, using NXP’s Roadlink chip sets. The RSU will be able to communicate important information to and from cars and larger vehicles equipped with V2X technology.

Siemens will deploy Cohda’s technology for various ITS field tests and pilot projects, including the A58 motorway in the Netherlands, A9 motorway in Germany, and the Living Lab in Austria.

Cohda Wireless CEO Dr. Paul Gray said Cohda’s agreement with Siemens created greater certainty for organisations planning to adopt connected vehicle technology.

Cohda equipment has been chosen for the simTD trial in Germany, the 3000-vehicle Safety Pilot trial in the US, and has been bought by many carmakers, tier one suppliers, and road authorities. Today Cohda equipment is used in more than 60% of vehicles involved in Cooperative-ITS trials globally. Cohda products have undergone about one million vehicle-days of testing in these trials.

u-blox. Earlier this month, Cohda announced that u-blox, a global leader in wireless and positioning modules and chips, would take over manufacture and supply of Cohda Wireless’s pioneer V2X module. To meet rapidly increasing demand for V2X modules for trials, early deployments and infrastructure roll-out, Cohda Wireless and u-blox agreed on an exclusive license for the use of the latest MK5 module design, leveraging u-blox strengths in quality manufacture and global supply of automotive components for positioning and communications.

While Cohda Wireless developed the MK5, a state-of-the-art V2X radio module, we have decided to license its design in order to focus on software IP. V2X communication is a growing exciting market and, by taking this step, we are looking forward to a closer cooperation with u-blox.

—Paul Gray, CEO of Cohda Wireless

Cohda’s THEO-P1 is a compact, automotive-grade transceiver module designed to facilitate development of electronics for V2X communication systems. Already with a strong market penetration, it addresses both equipment within vehicles (OBU-On Board Units) and road infrastructure (RSU-Road Side Units). THEO-P1 is based on 802.11p, 5.9 GHz radio link and is designed to work with vehicles at speeds up to 250 km/h (155 mph) and within a 1000 meter range. Cohda Wireless will continue to offer MK5 OBU and MK5 RSU products into V2X trials and low-mid volume V2X deployments, but in future these will be based on the THEO-P1.

This is a very exciting move for us, since u-blox is now at the forefront of both short range and positioning technologies for V2X solutions. As this market matures with an increasing number of new deployments, we can offer best-of-breed V2X solutions composed of our modules to address the requirements of both our automotive and infrastructure equipment customer base. We are also convinced that conventional driver assistance solutions will significantly benefit from the adoption of V2X technologies.

—Herbert Blaser, Senior Director, Product Center Short Range Radio at u-blox