ABI Research Sees 5G as ‘Unifying Connectivity Technology' for Future Cars

ABI Research sees 5G as the “unifying connectivity technology" for future cars, the firm said in a Thursday report. By 2025, there will be 67 million active automotive 5G vehicle subscriptions, 3 million of which will be low-latency connections mainly deployed in autonomous cars, it said. Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2X) will be a “key requirement for the connected and autonomous vehicle of the future,” ABI said. “It is closely linked to the concept of cooperative mobility, allowing vehicles to exchange both status and event information with each other via reliable, low-latency communication technologies. With it, vehicles can be proactive and capture and share critical events happening locally with each other, ultimately ensuring safer driving practices.” But for V2X to become a reality, the automotive and transportation industries “must first expand the scope and relevance of 5G cellular connectivity,” it said. ABI expects this to dramatically increase through 2025, “allowing connectivity providers to bring more value-added services to the table and better position themselves in the automotive ecosystem,” it said. “From there, new business models will emerge and ultimately more closely align the automotive and telecom industries.”