Aussie company joins US-backed safety project

Against the backdrop of a likely mandating of connected vehicle technology in the USA within four years, Australian company Cohda Wireless is working with the South Carolina-based Clemson University to test its safety systems on the South Carolina Connected Vehicle Testbed (SC-CVT), located along a 16-kilometre segment of Highway I-85.

Cohda is supplying its MK5 onboard and roadside hardware and software for the project which is supported by US Ignite, a White House initiative run by the National Science Foundation (NSF) – an independent federal agency supporting fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

Adelaide-based Cohda Wireless has offices in Michigan, USA (Cohda Wireless America LLC) and Munich in Germany (Cohda Wireless Europe GmbH) and is a world leader in V2X (vehicle to everything) connected vehicle technology. Its hardware and software products are used in more than 60 per cent of the world-wide V2X trials being conducted today.

Clemson University School of Computing Associate Professor Jim Martin said Cohda was chosen for two reasons: "Firstly Cohda's MK5 onboard unit and roadside unit performed well in validation tests and, secondly, because the support provided by Cohda to help us get our equipment up and running was outstanding."

V2X systems are designed to exchange vital safety information such as speed, location and direction of movement in relation to the proximity of vehicles as a means of avoiding crashes.

The NSF has said that it expects the US Department of Transportation to require all new vehicles to use V2X by the end of the decade to help reduce the number of crashes and save lives.

Picture courtesy of Airtuna08/Wikimedia Commons