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5G cars could prevent 68 per cent of motor-vehicle accidents

A 5G-connected car will be able to detect pedestrians, cyclists and static obstacles and will provide drivers with predictive information.

You may have heard that 5G networks are going to change the world, creating an "internet of things", but one innovation that's really impressive is the ability to use the technology to connect cars in a way that will prevent up to 68 per cent of all road accidents.

Cars equipped with 5G will be able to "see into the future" thanks to their ability to communicate not only with other vehicles, but city infrastructure, according to engineers from VW's Seat brand and phone company Telefonica.

A 5G-connected car will be able to detect pedestrians, cyclists and static obstacles and will provide drivers with predictive information - literally telling you what's about to happen - to help them make faster, better decisions.

"Before, the car only gave information the driver could see. Now, thanks to 5G technology, the car will get information from the city before the driver sees it," says SEAT engineer, César de Marco, who has been working on the technology.

In the future, infrared cameras, sensors and beacons will be embedded into the infrastructure of cities - in traffic lights, on power poles, etc - so a camera at an intersection would be able to sense a pedestrian crossing unsafely and would send that information, via super fast 5G, to any vehicles approaching.

"For cyclists, we used additional techniques because they are moving a bit faster. We added electronics to the bike, and small electronic markers in the city infrastructure," de Marco added.

So just how fast is 5G going to be? Well, when 4G came along it was 500 times faster than 3G, and 5G will be 1000 times faster than 4G. This will give 5G cars what's called "low latency", meaning the time it takes for a network to respond to commands.

Humans can react to touch, sights and smells in around 150 milliseconds, for example.

When 4G came along it was 500 times faster than 3G, and 5G will be 1000 times faster than 4G. When 4G came along it was 500 times faster than 3G, and 5G will be 1000 times faster than 4G.

"With 5G connectivity, the reaction time from when the car detects an obstacle to when it is communicated would be about 5 milliseconds," says de Marco.

Realistically, connecting 5G to your AEB is going to be faster than warning you, the slow- reacting human, of trouble ahead. But then 5G is also very much a part of what's going to make fully autonomous vehicles possible anyway.

International 5G automotive associations suggest traffic accidents - many of which are made up by those involving pedestrians, cyclists and motor cycles - could be reduced by as much as 68 per cent with the introduction of 5G.

The first commercial 5G services, from Telstra and Optus, are due to go live in Australia this year.

During Telstra's 5G trails on the Gold Coast, it achieved network speeds around 3Gbps, which is roughly 30 times as a fast as the maximum speed of an NBN 100 connection.

Are you ready to see into the future via the internet of things? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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