Vodafone to offer 5G network for autonomous vehicles trial in UK

British multinational telecommunications company Vodafone has announced that it will offer 5G connectivity for the Midlands Future Mobility consortium, which will test self-driving vehicles on important routes in the West Midlands region, UK.

The telecommunications company noted that over 300 miles of West Midlands’ roads will be part of this trial.

As part of the initiative, Vodafone will deploy 5G macro coverage along the route that covers some of the major city centres, including Coventry and Birmingham and key interchanges such as railways, HS2 and Birmingham International Airport.

Vodafone UK business director Anne Sheehan said: “5G will help revolutionise transport on our roads. The ultra-reliability and high-bandwidth of 5G will enable new progress for connected and autonomous vehicles, and we are delighted to bring our state-of-the-art 5G network to the Midlands Future Mobility project.”

The trial of the connected vehicles on the roads is intended to make the UK roads safer and facilitate predictable goods delivery and journey times.

Funded by business partners and the UK Government, Midlands Future Mobility is part of Zenzic CAM Testbed UK initiative that promotes development of connected and self-driving cars.

In addition, Midlands Future Mobility is backed by a consortium of organisations such as WMG at the University of Warwick, HORIBA MIRA, AVL, Transport for West Midlands, Costain, Amey, Wireless Infrastructure Group, Coventry University and Highways England.

WMG Midlands Future Mobility programme director John Fox said: “It’s increasingly clear that 5G has a huge role to play in CAM, in addition to more established comms methods which we’ve already deployed in Midlands Future Mobility.

“Bringing 5G to a much larger area than first planned with a leading mobile operator in Vodafone, means Midlands Future Mobility will reach and remain at the forefront of 5G development in the UK for years to come.”