The European Automotive Telecom Alliance (EATA), a cross-sector alliance of 37 telecom operators, vendors and automobile manufacturers, has set out its roadmap for testing connected and automated driving functionalities over the next couple of years. The plan was laid out during a recent roundtable discussion chaired by European Commission commissioners Andrus Ansip and Gunther Oettinger, with EATA this year starting to test applications such as highway chauffeur, truck platooning and telecommunication network functionalities including network slicing, hybrid communications and LTE broadcasting in Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Spain. From 2018 onwards, functionalities such as valet parking and concrete deployment of automated driving will take the centre stage. This will include testing cross-border motorways networks across the European Union, said EATA.
The members of EATA recently submitted a project on connected and automated driving worth around EUR 48 million, requesting EUR 24 million in co-founding from the Connected Europe Facility (CEF).
EATA also announced that in order to improve global cooperation, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the 5GAA – a global multi-industry association bringing together the automotive and ICT industries on vehicle and road transportation systems.
