Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and NXP Semiconductors are in the process of building a living test bed for smart cars and traffic systems at the NTU campus.

The new S$22m ($16m) NTU-NXP Smart Mobility Test Bed will be supported by Singapore Economic Development Board and will test and develop new technologies for vehicles to communicate with each other and with designated roadside infrastructures.

The vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can collect and analyse data from other vehicles and the surrounding smart infrastructure wirelessly over a distance of up to 2km.

"What we need is more intelligent transport systems."

It gives drivers advanced warning of upcoming hazards and is also expected to improve road safety and traffic flow.

Hazards faced by drivers include dangerous road conditions, unexpected traffic jams, approaching emergency vehicles or roadworks.

Future V2X solutions can be deployed, tested, and validated by companies, research institutes and government agencies in a real-world scenario with the new campus-wide test bed.

The smart mobility test bed will involve NTU’s 100 vehicles and 50 roadside units to research V2X technologies over the next four years.

NXP global automotive sales and marketing senior vice-president Drue Freeman said: "More roads, tunnels, or overpasses will not solve the traffic challenges in global megacities in the long run. What we need is more intelligent transport systems."

"Wireless communication technologies like V2X will bring significant benefits to society, saving lives by avoiding road traffic accidents as well as limiting congestion, travel time and CO2 emissions."

The US Department of Transportation study has revealed that V2X safety functions can reduce multi-car accident figures by more than 80%.

The study noted that vehicles integrated with this technology can receive information from intelligent road signs and automatically recognise the operating cycle of traffic lights.