The communication of ebikes with other vehicles and selected traffic infrastructure is considered one of the topics that should improve the safety of cyclists in traffic in the coming years. Companies such as Bosch, BMC and Spoke have been active in this field for some time. Now a new alliance called “Coalition for Cyclist Safety” wants to advance these developments in a coordinated way with uniform standards.
Vehicle-to-everything technology, V2X for short, is considered one of the foundations on the way to the vision of autonomous driving. This approach is based on vehicles detecting each other via sensors, exchanging position and driving data and thus avoiding collisions. Traffic lights, road signs, pedestrian crossings and similar elements are included in this communication.
Specialists act hand in hand
Various actors from the cycling sector, both from the industry and from cyclists, are working to ensure that bicycles and ebikes become part of this communication. This should not only create a more complex representation of the real traffic situation, but also a promising way to significantly reduce the number of cyclists killed and injured in road traffic in the future.
A future V2X communication system would automatically alert the ebike and the turning car to each other.
A total of 19 of these actors have now joined forces under the name Coalition for Cyclist Safety. They come from different sectors and bring correspondingly different know-how to the alliance:
- Automotive: Audi, Cariad
- Bicycle industry: Accell, AT-Zweirad, BMC, Bosch eBike Systems, Koninklijke Gazelle, Shimano, Trek Bicycle Corp.
- Telecommunications: Deutsche Telekom, Telus
- V2X technology: Autotalks, Commsignia, Qualcomm, Spoke Safety
Interests of cyclists present
The work of the companies is accompanied by an additional prominently cast committee. This includes stakeholders from the fields of cycling, safety and intelligent traffic control.
- ITS America
- League of American Bicyclists
- People for Bikes
- The Governors Highway Safety Association
The committee will act in an advisory capacity and ensure that the needs of cyclists are adequately heard. “We trust that the leadership shown by companies in the Coalition for Cyclist Safety will inspire others to join and commit to delivering a high standard for safety not just for people inside vehicles, but outside as well.,” says Bill Nesper, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists.
Together or not at all
Estimates presented by Audi show the extent to which a V2x-based system could reach. According to these, by 2025, around 5.3 million vehicles, work zones, railway crossings, bicycles and other devices and vehicles could be networked. As early as 2030, it is conceivable that 20,000 crosswalks, 60,000 school zones, 216,000 school buses and 45 million smartphones could be connected.
Figures like these make it clear that a single company would quickly be overwhelmed by such a task. A view, incidentally, that is shared at Bosch, also a member of the Coalition for Cyclist Safety. “It requires the cooperation of various players working on the topic across the board so that in the future no road user is excluded from the benefits V2X can provide,” explains Claus Fleischer, CEO of Robert Bosch GmbH’s Bosch eBike Systems division.
The newly founded Coalition for Cyclist Safety has a lot of work ahead of it. Apparently also in the creation of its own website. It currently offers nothing more than a grey screen.
Knowledge transfer from North America to the rest of the world
However, the aim of the alliance is not to develop a single system that all participants will later use. Each will work independently on solutions. Bosch, for example, has been doing this for some time as part of the SECUR project. By coordinating with regulatory authorities and infrastructure operators, the aim is to create clear guidelines and standards that standardise implementation in devices, vehicles and the transport infrastructure.
Regionally, the Coalition for Cyclist Safety’s work is clearly limited to the USA and Canada. At the same time, however, they want to look for ways “to bring joint industry approaches to Europe and other regions of the world.”
Pictures: Bosch eBike Systems
