Qualcomm teamed with local officials in California and the state’s Department of Transportation (DoT) to trial cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology, aiming to demonstrate its ability to improve road safety and alleviate congestion.

Testing is already underway and expected to run throughout the remainder of the year. It is running within a three-mile corridor of two major roads featuring radio and processing units based on Qualcomm’s C-V2X platform installed along the side.

Qualcomm said the programme was designed by the San Diego Regional Proving Grounds (SDRPG) to test vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) use cases including notifications for speed limits, road closures and travel times. SDRPG is a government group comprising the California DoT, City of Chula Vista and San Diego Association of Governments.

Bill Valle, director of engineering for Chula Vista, stated insights gleaned from the tests will “help inform policies and produce new systems that are expected to result in a safer and more efficient transportation network for the region”.

The C-V2X standard uses LTE technology to connect vehicles to one another, roadside infrastructure, other road users and cloud-based services. In late 2019, US officials advanced a proposal to allocate 20MHz of spectrum in the 5.9GHz band to the technology.

Qualcomm’s involvement in the California tests expands on its participation in other C-V2X trials underway in Virginia and Colorado.