The cars of the future will largely communicate with each other and with travel assistance systems.
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) joined forces with Commsignia Ltd with the help of an investment from venture capital fund manager PBG FMC Ltd in founding a research centre in order to help promising developments. BME started to deal with self-driving systems in 2006 in the framework of a European Union research and development project that aimed at creating a pan-European mobility test network. This network was tasked with developing and real-life testing a part of communication protocols.

The V2X (Vehicle to everything) technology makes traffic more secure and more efficient. This will only be a full-fledged technology if car makers apply it on a wide scale. Although, all this is expected to spread swiftly as self-driving and vehicle communication go hand in hand. The V2X system increases the area a car’s sensors can scan and multiplies the quantity of information they can collect. This increases the precision of the decision making of the self-driving cars. As a comparison, vehicle communication can see the 4th or 5th car ahead thus reducing the risk of accidents.

In three years’ time in the US, this technology will be compulsory in the cars coming off of the production line. This is the first step for a world-wide spread of the vehicle communication. The EU will take suit with a slight delay.

Commsignia Ltd, a contributor to creating the research centre, offers home-developed software and hardware to car makers and suppliers but also to road maintenance businesses and to city management companies that supply cutting-edge V2X communication. With passing on its high-level expertise, the company contributes to education that will eventually boost Hungary’s developer capacities.