PRESS RELEASE: ZTE Corporation together with Tianyi Transportation Technology Ltd. has built autonomous driving experience routes based on ZTE’s 5G+ intelligent connected vehicle system with Vehicle-Road-Cloud integration solution for the 29th ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) World Congress in Suzhou, China.
Guests and participants from all over the world gathered in Suzhou to observe the latest development of the intelligent connected vehicles industry. ITS World Congress, known as the Olympics in transportation industry, is the largest-scale, and widest platform for achievements display and technical communication in intelligent transportation industry.
The experience routes have been key exhibitions at all previous ITS World Congress events. Built on ZTE’s 5G+ Intelligent Connected Vehicle System with Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration solution, the smart transportation city service experience route developed by Tianyi Transportation and ZTE garnered significant praise from visitors.
Situated in Suzhou High-speed Railway New Town, this extensive route spans 162km of graded roads, including 51km of holographic roads designed for Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration-based autonomous driving. It boasts the distinction of being China’s longest I4-level road network and the only 5G-based road network capable of providing L4-level autonomous driving services for L2-level vehicles.
Visitors to the route have the opportunity to experience a wide range of autonomous scenarios, including self-driving taxis, buses, cleaning vehicles, security inspection units, and more, all facilitated by the 5G+ Intelligent connected vehicle system with Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration solution. Additionally, the Tianyi Transportation cloud control platform enables collaborative cloud scheduling, which empowers smart traffic management encompassing tasks like intelligent monitoring and commanding, traffic backtracking, collaborative decision-making, and green wave traffic adjustments. This innovative approach consistently enhances the overall public travel experience.
With economic development, urban traffic becomes busier and busier. To ensure traffic safety and improve traffic efficiency, higher requirements are imposed upon the intelligence level of road traffic. Only by intelligently connecting transportation elements such as vehicles and roads and adopting the vehicle-road collaboration solution, can we meet the challenges of complex and diversified traffic scenarios, improve the efficiency of urban commuting, and achieve smart transportation and smart city construction. The key to vehicle-road collaboration is the coordination between vehicles and roads, which requires a highly reliable and real-time network with wide area coverage. As the latest generation of communication technology, 5G is the best choice to meet the high requirements for vehicle-road collaboration.
In June 2023, Tianyi Transportation and ZTE signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Their goal was to jointly build the industry’s first ultra-reliable 5G network, which includes ultra-reliable network connections and hierarchical computing power. This innovative solution combines various 5G technologies such as virtual dual-band private networks, dual transmission and selective receiving, dynamic scheduling enhancement, and more. These technologies aim to reduce network delays and enhance reliability, ensuring real-time information transmission between vehicles and the road infrastructure.
So far, this collaboration has achieved remarkable results with a network latency as low as 20ms and a reliability rate of 99.99% in the field network. These achievements guarantee support for autonomous driving at speeds of up to 60km/h.
Furthermore, the installation of NodeEngine computing power boards on 5G base stations has allowed for the deployment of Tianyi Transportation’s edge cloud control platform. This setup enables contiguous network connections and provides flexibility for expanding computing power as needed. This approach ensures efficient and cost-effective computing, facilitating fast closed-loop control decisions. As a result, it offers a stable service experience while serving multiple purposes for network operators.
Mr. Bai Gang, Vice President of ZTE, delivered a speech at the “Promoting Chinese Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration Solution Practice” forum. During his speech, he highlighted that the Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration solution, built upon the foundation of a robust 5G ultra-stable network, boasts the most reliable communication network and a highly potent edge computing platform. This combination enables the maximization of vehicle-road collaboration efficiency through well-coordinated scheduling.
Furthermore, this approach allows for the efficient and systematic allocation of valuable road resources, resulting in a significant enhancement in the overall intelligence of the road traffic system.
In the next phase of this collaboration, Tianyi Transportation and ZTE are planning to expand the application of the 5G+ intelligent connected vehicle system with the Vehicle-Road-Cloud integration solution. This expansion will encompass both expressways and low-speed urban areas, with a focus on supporting higher-speed autonomous driving. Additionally, the partners are committed to deepening multi-cell collaboration to ensure consistent and continuous vehicle-road collaboration and autonomous driving services over a broader area, with the goal of achieving zero interruption and service fluctuation.
Furthermore, the advanced 5G ISAC (Integrated Sensing and Communication) technology will be integrated into ultra-reliable networks. This will establish an integrated infrastructure for sensing, computation, control, and communication, enhancing network perception and enabling a wider range of connected vehicle applications. As part of this effort, 5G ultra-reliable networks will be rolled out for commercial use in more provinces and cities, contributing to the development of a next-generation intelligent transportation system and smart cities.