We are all familiar with the phrase: “Think globally, act locally.” This popular expression reflects the notion that while we should be aware of global concerns—preserving the environment, maintaining peace, or addressing hunger—we should try to act locally by helping our neighbors or improving our town. In many instances, this is sage advice.
Sometimes, however, we are allowed to both think and act globally. Developing technologies that contribute meaningfully to reducing the staggeringly high roadway fatalities worldwide is that opportunity.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.35 million lives were lost last year in traffic accidents, many of which could have been avoided if connected vehicle technologies were in play. The widescale deployment of connected vehicle and infrastructure technologies promises to reduce these fatalities by nearly 80%.
Making this a reality requires global cooperation by engineers and experts to develop, test, and deploy these potentially lifesaving technologies. We can only address problems of this scale and complexity by working together across borders and cultures.
The production of connected vehicle technologies is itself a microcosm of globalization. Thankfully, the ITS industry is well-positioned to take up this challenge. In one single C-V2X roadside unit (RSU), one might find a chipset designed in Israel, with a software stack developed in India, on a module fabricated in Taiwan, integrated into a radio built in Korea, with security certificates developed in Canada, tested at a lab in Spain, and installed at an intersection in the United States.
OmniAir Consortium’s diverse membership, in many ways, reflects these globalized supply chains and the growing demand for advanced transportation safety technologies around the world.
Engineers and transportation professionals from every corner of the globe actively contribute to developing OmniAir’s third-party testing and certification programs. We rely on this diverse membership—drawn from different backgrounds, often from different continents—to work together to analyze standards, write program scopes, and define test cases.
The great strides we have made in advancing testing and certification programs are a direct result of the contributions of OmniAir’s global membership. This cooperation has allowed OmniAir to develop the world’s only full-stack, independent, third-party testing and certification program for C-V2X radios, just as we did for DSRC-V2X several years ago.
We are continuing to push the envelope—developing tests for V2X safety applications, new programs for modules, and even programs for V2X-based payments and road usage charge (RUC) technologies.
In less than two weeks, engineers and transportation technology experts from across Europe, Asia, and the Americas will gather at Florida’s SunTrax for our OmniAir Florida Plugfest, in cooperation with the Florida Department of Transportation, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, and the University of Florida Transportation Institute, for a week-long testing event, that will help to ensure V2X radios are ready for deployment, and certification.
In our current time, where we are divided and external forces are pushing us apart, with international tension at an all-time high, it is refreshing to consider what we can accomplish together to improve transportation safety.
If we succeed in this endeavor, think about what other challenges we might overcome and leave a legacy we will leave behind by simply working together.
Jason M. Conley, Executive Director