Future vehicles equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology – commonly referred to as V2X – will also be able to exchange position data with pedestrians and bicyclists who carry a smartphone or special transponder, according to auto safety supplier Continental Corp.

As a result, connected vehicle technology now under development will eventually help prevent collisions involving the most vulnerable road users, the company said.

Modern smartphones are already capable of WLAN communication. With a few changes to the communication chip, smartphones can be adapted to exchange V2X messages with vehicles, Continental said.

“Protecting vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists is one of the greatest challenges on the road to accident-free driving,” explained Dr. Bernhard Klumpp, head of Continental’s passive safety and sensorics business unit. “Short-range communication can play a decisive role here, too, and brings us one step closer to our goal of zero traffic fatalities.”

The position and movement predictions of pedestrians and cyclists will be transmitted anonymously to vehicles using V2X messages. Incoming messages will be authenticated and processed within less than 0.1 second. The higher-level control unit in the vehicle will decide whether the driver needs to be warned or if an intervention in the vehicle dynamics is necessary, Continental said.