Car-to-X Communication

There’s some overlap between car-to-car and car-to-X technology. BMW prefers car-to-X, as they’re looking into designing a system that allows cars to communicate with other systems outside of those in vehicles.
One of these research projects is known as PROTON-PLATA (programmable telematics onboard radio), conducted by DEUFRAKO, a Franco-German cooperation in traffic research. The project is addressing the issues posed by a wide range of digital standards and radio frequencies currently in use in digital broadcasting and mobile telecommunications, all of which are continually upgraded into their “next generations” about every two years. Because the life cycle of a car is significantly longer, drivers are constantly “falling behind” when new systems are released.
The PROTON-PLATA project is researching whether SDR (software defined radio) is the possible answer — technology which will allow all of these systems to be implemented in a single hardware unit.
BMW’s AMULETT (active mobile accident avoidance and mitigation of accident effects through cooperative data acquisition and tracking technology) project focuses on using car-to-X systems to actually communicate with people. The system includes a radio transponder that cyclists and pedestrians wear, which notifies the driver when the wearer is crossing the street or stepping out from behind a parked car.