Several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) refer to mobility with an increasingly less utopian imperative: in the coming years it must be more sustainable and respectful of the environment. To achieve these goals, technology is an essential tool. It enables vehicle movements within (and between) cities to be more effective and efficient. And it helps coordinate multimodal and shared mobility services, achieving a significant reduction in harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Technology shortens the deadlines for meeting these challenges thanks, for example, to the digitization of the road network, a key – and empirical, measurable – aspect to improve road safety: smart roads record fewer accidents and victims deadly. Connected tunnels, automated toll booths and the virtualization of black spots are excellent examples of how infrastructures are evolving.
In addition, favoring C-V2X (Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything) technology in connected vehicles as an additional sensor in advanced systems is essential for future mobility. Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). With these advances, the driver is able to obtain information beyond his direct field of vision, which results in his safety at the wheel and in that of other road users.
Telefónica, committed to putting technology at the service of people and the protection of the planet, offers different solutions that allow its customers to carry out their activities in a more efficient and sustainable way. Transformation is part of its DNA and it proves it with four projects that are already revolutionizing the mobility of tomorrow.
The first 5G connected tunnel in Spain
The road of the future will be sensorized, intelligent and capable of communicating with the connected vehicles that circulate on it. The first step towards this infrastructure is found in the Cereixal tunnel (Lugo), located in the heart of the A-6. Telefónica, in collaboration with Nokia, Ineco, Stellantis, the Galician Automotive Technology Center (CTAG) and SICE, has sensorized and provided 5G coverage to the Galician tunnel, which has become one of the stars of the Mobile World Congress recently held in Barcelona. The initiative, a pioneer in Spain, is a driver assistance pilot for vehicles.
Using the specific capacities for C-V2X vehicle communications, IoT (Internet of Things) sensorization and Edge Computing of the 5G network, the intelligent tunnel sends all kinds of information to drivers: conditions weather forecasts at the exit, works, slow vehicle warnings, possible congestion, accident, obstacle on the road, presence of a pedestrian, vehicle in the opposite direction or sudden braking during its journey through it, in addition to the warning of the entry of an emergency vehicle, are some of these possible messages.
Different sensors (opacimeter, slippery pavement, visibility, weather station) and cameras (DAI, thermal, detection of dangerous goods, detection of electric vehicles) installed inside the tunnel allow monitoring its status, generating information and sending it to a tool so that the managers of the infrastructure visualize it, analyze it and, if necessary, issue alerts and warnings to the vehicles that transit through this underground infrastructure.
The road of the future is not so far away in time: fully sensorized, it will be able to communicate with the connected vehicles that circulate on it
According to Laudelino Laiz, responsible for Innovation in the Iberian Peninsula at Stellantis, these projects “allow the ecosystem that needs to be implemented to develop connectivity solutions based on 5G technology to be formed”.
5G cybersecurity for connected mobility
Telefónica and Dekra have developed a pioneering cybersecurity solution applied to connected mobility. The demonstrator combines 5G connectivity, C-V2X vehicular communications technology, and cryptographic technologies. With them, it provides anonymous cybersecurity certificates through a platform deployed by Telefónica and based on the public key infrastructure (PKI) integrated in the European Union’s cybersecurity mode.
The certificates, interoperable and valid throughout the European Union, hail the safety, efficiency and integrity of vehicular communications. In addition, through this platform, Telefónica guarantees trust between the different actors in the connected mobility ecosystem. Among the main functionalities developed under the security layer are warnings of sudden braking, of the existence of a stopped vehicle on the road and of traffic light status, with the remaining time for phase change.
With this cybersecurity platform, Telefónica has become the first telecommunications operator to have a certification authority recognized by the European Commission linked to the 5G network for vehicular communications that meets the requirements of the C-ITS standard (Intelligent Transport Systems). Cooperatives).
For Rosario Trapero Miralles, Director of Connected and Automated Driving of Dekra’s Service Division Product Testing, “with this project a necessary step is taken to contribute to the creation of a secure V2X ecosystem with cross-border interoperability between member countries, capable of guarantee the integrity of the information.
Telematic management of urban waste
Having the necessary information at the right time to be able to adapt to the possible changes that lie ahead is crucial. Once again, technology helps (and a lot) in these objectives. PreZero, a provider of environmental services, is a model in this field: it uses telematics for real-time control of its fleet of waste collection trucks, more than 4,000 in total.
Using a device connected to the electronics of each vehicle, it is possible to know its location, how fast it travels, the stops made or the activities carried out. Thanks to IoT and Big Data technology, the information is processed so that PreZero has a more strategic vision of the fleet that helps it make decisions. “Thanks to fleet management, we know in real time where each truck is and what it is doing in order to give our customers the information they ask for at all times,” explains Paco Gimeno Giménez, director of Digital Transformation and Mobility at PreZero .
Smart mobility on the island of Mallorca
Telefónica participates in the Mallorca Smart Island project, which seeks to create a platform for capturing and managing information originating on the island to offer it to citizens in real time. Four of the components of this platform are related to smart mobility.
In the first place, the existence of a network of meteorological stations, deployed in six locations, to know the environmental conditions in different parts of the island. On the other hand, the installation of smart canopies (180 in total), which allow citizens to access information on public transport. In addition, parking is easier thanks to the ten two-way mobile capacity control systems (entry and exit) with variable messaging mobile panels installed in five island locations. These devices inform drivers whether or not parking spaces are available. And the flow of traffic on highways and national roads is also controlled thanks to 21 fixed gauging stations, 14 closed circuit television (CCTV) and six variable messaging panels, thus contributing to intelligent traffic management.
“Smart Island Mallorca aims to provide data to facilitate the analysis of mobility on the island of Mallorca and help define new specific strategies to change the current mobility model for a more sustainable one,” concludes Gonzalo Llamas Navarro, Island Director of Mobility. of the Insular Council of Majorca.
