Vehicles are becoming powerful high-functional computers on wheels, equipped with sophisticated technologies: ADAS or GPS systems to support drivers, HD cameras for Vision processing, Radar or Lidar sensors for surrounding mapping, and more.
Several automotive and memory experts agreed the upcoming Autonomous Vehicles are generating and consuming almost a terabyte of data by the use of those technologies; much of that data must be real-time processed as it could make the difference between detecting and reacting in time or being involved in a deadly accident. While is on the road, the vehicle needs to store dozens of megabytes of data per second and send some others for analysis to the Cloud or using edge computing —acting on data instantly without the latency incurred by using a Wide Area Network (WAN).
Future Autonomous Vehicles would require low-latency connections, fiber networks, and highly functional data centers to be hiper-connected; these mandatory requirements will increase the infrastructure demands of the Smart Cities and force the collaboration between companies and government organizations to create a robust infrastructure, also to develop policy decisions and functional standards. Preparing for that demand, telecommunication carriers are now investing in the multi-Gigabit speed wireless 5G network to enable reliable connectivity, considering the 5G will support intelligent data orchestration to provide OEMs significant reliability for use in any real-world circumstance.
IMAGE: What is 5G? - https://5g.co.uk
As the majority of the Autonomous Vehicles are pre-loaded with algorithms and maps, and also built to work using a small amount of Internet bandwidth (to report particular statistics while driving), the network speed is no limiting factor for them, but the reliability of the connection and massive capacity over short distances are. If the vehicle relies on cloud processing to function, there will be circumstances where the connection might fail and could jeopardize the safety of the passengers and others surrounding it. That is way 5G gives an opportunity for Autonomous Vehicles to change the data motion, storage, and processing philosophies and architectures.