Here Comes 5G – Where the Automotive and Telecoms Worlds Collide

Establishing new standards of car connectivity is at the front and centre of the plans made by the newly founded 5G Automotive Association. Permanently connecting cars to the internet, the cities around them and each other, is set to be one of the most exciting uses for 5G.

Aside from developments around the in car entertainment and communication systems, 5G will also play a major role in the uptake of self-driving vehicles of the future.

5G will propel in-car communications solutions forwards with its vastly improved speed, reliability and capacity which hasn’t gone unnoticed by Audi AG, BMW Group, and Daimler AG who have come together with Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm Incorporated and founded the 5G Automotive Association.

The 5G Automotive Association will be solely focused on researching, testing and developing communications solutions and support standardisation and getting it out to market to make it readily available to the car buying public.

The powerhouse combination of telecoms and automotive leaders will allow the Association to address critical regulatory and technical challenges and roll out trials and pilots on a grand scale.

Dr. Christoph Grote, Senior Vice President Electronics for BMW Group, said: “We expect 5G to become the worldwide dominating mobile communications standard of the next decade. For the automotive industry it is essential that 5G fulfils the challenges of the era of digitalisation and autonomous driving. With the 5G Automotive Association we founded a cross-industry forum that allows us to shape the future 5G technology with leading ICT companies.”