A total of 41 million 5G connected cars will already be on roads by 2030, according to recent figures published by global tech advisory firm ABI Research.
That number will rise to 83 million 5G connected cars by 2035. By then, 5G connected cars will make up more than 75% of the total C-V2X equipped cars. Soon, in 2023, cars will start to communicate with each other to increase overall road safety and traffic, said ABi Research.
"These numbers underline the huge momentum for cellular connectivity, and particularly 5G, in the automotive sector," says Leo Gergs, Research Analyst for 5G Markets at ABI Research. "As a consequence, we will see a rising number of automotive OEMs start developing C-V2X modules for their cars during 2020. We can then expect the first 5G connected cars on the roads in 2022."
While leading car manufacturer Ford already announced new car models equipped with C-V2X for 2021, other automotive heavyweights like Audi, BMW, and Volkswagen have all partnered up with the likes of Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia to commence large-scale trial projects to test the capabilities of cellular technology for connected car use cases. The results of these proof-of-concept projects are auspicious and show that, through enhancing traffic efficiency, 5G can reduce fuel consumption by up to one third.
"More importantly, however, the sharing of sensor data will make overtaking much safer and will be critical to protecting vulnerable road users (such as pedestrians or cyclists). Therefore, bringing 5G-based cellular connectivity into cars will be critical in making the vision of zero road traffic deaths a reality," Gergs emphasizes.
