A truly distributed & independent V2X communication architecture, enabling the next generation of autonomous vehicles to seamlessly communicate & synchronise with one another & with the surrounding infrastructural components.
The Motivation
communication enables autonomous driving systems to be aware of what’s beyond their line of sight by exploiting the sensor data of other connected vehicles or infrastructural elements. This functionality makes it possible for vehicles to “see” hazards a mile ahead of itself or even around corners and bends, immensely enhancing the safety of commuters and through higher levels of predictability and through mitigation of risks and inefficiencies posed by human reaction time.
Further, they allow decisions to be made collectively with all the participating systems, facilitating a highly synchronised functioning and optimisation of the vehicle’s motion vectors and other dynamics in order to maximise efficiencies in terms of energy and time.
*V2X is composed of , , and .
The Challenge
/ and communication packaged into a single solution seems like a necessary step in for both as well as for . Though firms have initiated work on this integration, there is one fundamental aspect that is often overlooked. The fear of a commuter not being in control over the decisions made by the machine or the fear of an organisation or the government having complete command over one’s vehicle drives many to speculate over dystopian possibilities. Additionally, there are legitimate concerns over having such critical aspects of control seized by those with malicious intent.
A system where synchronised and optimal decisions based on collectively shared data coalesces with machines having independent control may be a ground tricky to attain through balanced ethics. It is particularly important to make sure that a high standard of data security/privacy and functional reliability of V2X technology is maintained at all fronts without compromising on interoperability and upgradability.
Designs & Developments
Our efforts at present focus on the network architecture and are agnostic to hardware level and application level set-ups. For exceptional levels of security and little to no active reliance on centralised systems, distributed networks seem enticing. Our solution is established on and inspired by , where machines communicate through mutually agreed rules and priorities.
Its fundamentally decentralised and distributed nature brings in various advantages in terms of security, privacy and resilience, however, DLT generally comes with limitations when it comes to latency. Very low latency times are essential for exchanging safety-relevant information, such as the vehicle position, dynamics, brake operation, acceleration and deceleration vectors, etc. To counter this, we have designed a novel solution that we call Localised Distributed Ledger; it makes use of localised sub-nets, based on distance, hops and relevance, such that a vehicle would exchange data only with vehicles within defined vicinity and only with those that agree on set rules and priorities. The registries exchanged can consist of static parameters, instantaneous dynamic parameters as well as planned subsequent parameters, enabling dynamic path optimisation. Our progress so far indicates a great scope in various applications.
For more information with regards to the technicalities, please check out our research publications or reach us at: ide@aufenbach.com
