Its global SIM provides internet of things (IoT) connectivity with 500 carriers worldwide, with cars connected in 57 countries, according to Chris Penrose, president of IoT solutions at the company.
This is a step towards autonomous vehicles, says Penrose, writing in an AT&T blog. “We expect vehicle-to-anything (V2X) connectivity technologies will help driverless vehicles to make virtually real-time decisions based on information that goes beyond the individual sensors on board the vehicle itself.”
This means vehicles will be able to “see” around corners, he writes, “in front and behind other vehicles – and at greater distances”.
Penrose notes: “This will eventually allow vehicles to quickly make sense of their surrounding environment as well as [the] road ahead to help guide safe and efficient operations on the road.”
He warns: “For self-driving cars to interoperate with their environment and surrounding areas, it will be critical to have connectivity between vehicles, roadside units, pedestrians, and other infrastructure elements while navigating the roadways. Data analysis and decision capabilities will be largely processed on board the vehicle utilising various data sources from the vehicles and the surrounding intelligent transportation system.”
AT&T is working with 29 vehicle brands, he notes, including Audi, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, Land-Rover, Nissan, Volvo and Volkswagen as well as Tesla.
According to Gartner, says Penrose, connected car sales are rising at 36% a year from 17 million in 2016 to 80 million by 2021.
Penrose notes that 5G mobile will “eventually allow for the necessary distribution of processed data to meet and exceed the needs of the automated vehicle” and “will ultimately help create faster and more efficient exchange of this data, allowing these automated vehicles to distribute and receive data and function even better”.