Opel Begins On-Road Test of Car-to-Car Communication

OpelOpelGermany, 1863 > present85 models
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has begun an on-road test of car-to-car and car-to-environment communication technology around Frankfurt am Main that will run through the end of the year. The test is called the simTD project, which stands for "Safe Intelligent Mobility – Test Field Germany." 

“Cars learn to exchange data according to standardized rules. They also learn to process the transmitted data in such a way that they can quickly and reliably filter and display information important to the driver. In the past Opel was able to lay the foundations for Car-to-X technologies in projects such as DIAMANT. These findings will be taken into account when we now take on the baton from Continental after successful test preparations and assume leadership of the fleet testing within simTD,” said Dr. Burkhard Milke, Opel Director Electric/Electronic Engineering.

The test will comprise 120 vehicles around the Frankfurt am Main metropolitan area with 450 test drivers. The University of Würzburg and the Technical University of Munich will also monitor the test.

Opel will test a system that transmits live weather information to cars. It will use four weather information stations that already exist to get weather information to road gritting trucks. The stations monitor dew point and road temperature and can generate warnings to send to cars.

Opel's parent company, General MotorsGMUnited States of America, 1998 > present8 models
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, is working on a similar system that would send similar data between cars using a protocol called Wi-Fi Direct. We reported on it last week.