New York, New York – General Motors has completed demonstration tests of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) capabilities for the Cadillac CTS sedan. Working with the Michigan Department of Transportation, Macomb County (northern Detroit suburbs) Department of Roads, CTS models were able to receive real-time data from traffic signals.
While much of vehicle connectivity research focuses on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications and autonomous driving, V2I systems could alert drivers to safety problems, traffic data, weather conditions, or other road-hazard information collected by states and municipalities.
Traffic signals, located adjacent to the GM Warren Technical Center campus (in Macomb County) at the intersections of 12 Mile and 13 Mile roads, used real-time data using dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) protocol to warn test-car drivers that they were potentially driving too fast to stop for red lights.
Test vehicles do not transmit identifying information such as VIN number, registration, or media access control (MAC) address, in their messages. For example, if a connected car runs a red light, the traffic signal may be able to say someone ran a red light, but will not be able to say who or what vehicle. Firewalls and other measures are used to ensure the DSRC signals cannot be interfered with and are only exchanged between the vehicle and the infrastructure.