Driverless vehicle deploys with 5G at the border

Neighbors and pilgrims, surprised by the futuristic prototype that the CTAG tests on the old Tui bridge

135 years after the first train crossed the Pelayo Mancebo bridge in Tui , the only railway crossing between Galicia and Portugal has once again been the scene of another transport milestone . The old pass over the Miño was closed to traffic yesterday so that the Galician Automotive Technology Center (CTGA) could carry out the first tests of the autonomous car of the future. All the spotlights of the mobile cameras of tourists, neighbors and pilgrims who passed through the raia were focused on this prototype of futuristic mobility that not even the Cathedral of Tui overshadowed.

The Local Police shielded the road access to the bridge, but those who crossed it on foot were exceptional witnesses to the coming-out of this autonomous vehicle that seemed to be taken from a science fiction movie. A large CTAG team tested the car from early in the morning until six in the afternoon. During that period, the unidentified object for the great majority captured the attention of passers-by, still without flying and arousing the same expectation as if it were a UFO .

These tests are part of the European 5GMobix project , in which the City Council of Vigo and the CTAG participate. The pandemic disrupted the planned schedule for the deployment of the 5G network between Vigo and Porto , which was finally concluded at the beginning of this year, and which is what allows this vehicle without a driver to be tested. Yesterday is the first of at least five border tests scheduled for the next few weeks with this autonomous, connected and electric vehicle. The first tests are between Tui and Valença to verify the efficiency of data communication between the two countries in the field of the 5GMobix network.

This vehicle or shuttle was presented in November last year at the AutoMob Summit forum, organized by the metal employer Asime. In November 2015, Vigo became the first Spanish city to drive a vehicle without a driver. PSA Peugeot Citröen (now Stellantis ) made history by joining the 599 kilometers that separate its production centers in Vigo and Madrid with an autonomous C4 Picasso.

In the case of the shuttle being tested in Tui, it is a passenger vehicle and the tests in the raia are extremely interesting in order to analyze the interoperability of the autonomous functions of the vehicle with the different communication operators.

Project

The technology center plans in the vicinity of the new Salvaterra-As Neves logistics platform a project that would transform the Galician automobile industry and that is the high-speed circuit for autonomous car testing . These facilities would allow the main autonomous vehicle innovation projects to be centrifuged in the Vigo area. The complex, for which an investment of 22.5 million is expected, would have 10 kilometers of tracks distributed by zones that simulate different driving environments and laboratories.

The world's first cross-border connection
The world's first 5G cross-border data connection in mobility was launched on May 22, 2019 between Tui and Valença. Two players completed the journey between the two municipalities while playing PUGB Mobile on two tablets while circulating in different vehicles. The gamers maintained a stable connection and uninterrupted crossing the border thanks to this new technology that provides the necessary latencies to play in real time, anytime and anywhere and also key for the vehicle connected and autonomous.