The CONCORDA (Connected Corridor for Driving Automation) project contributes to the preparation of European motorways for automated driving and high density truck platooning with adequate connected services and technologies.

Connected and automated driving is high on the agenda of the EU and national governments and a large number of European Member States and other countries around the world are running or planning to soon undertake large-scale testing of connected and automated driving functions on public roads. The CONCORDA project, launched in October 2017 and funded from the Connecting Europe Facility, will contribute to the preparation of European motorways for connected and automated driving and high density truck platooning, by providing adequate connected services and technologies in terms of interferences and interoperability. This will help overcome fragmentation and ensure backwards interoperability between Cooperative-ITS services and the services harmonized by C-ROADS under real traffic situations. A consortium of 26 partners, representing all relevant areas of the automotive and telecom ecosystem, will work together towards achieving these objectives.

Technologies
With regards to high density truck platooning, there is a need for ultra-reliable, low latency V2V safety-relevant communication between the platoon leader and the trucks following in the platoon. There is a need for critical adaptations on the side of the trucks, as well as for the establishment of close cooperation between mobile network operators and the truck industry, in order to guarantee that the requested minimum service level agreements for truck platooning are enacted. CONCORDA will combine 802.11p and LTE-V2X connectivity without affecting existing services in terms of interferences and interoperability to ensure backwards C-ITS service interoperability with the services harmonized by C-ROADS under real traffic situations.

Interoperability & Testing
CONCORDA will conduct tests at sites in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and Spain, with an aim to improve the interoperability of the test sites. The interoperability will be developed along three lines, namely on: (1) system architecture and technologies, (2) services and (3) implementation, leading to a commonly-agreed set of profiles, specifications and (proposals for) standards.
The objective of the cross-border activity will be to identify interoperability issues on paper and also in practice, and to quantify the foreseen interoperability issues, while also identifying new practical issues. These will be used further as input for the re-development of the profiles and (new, if necessary) specifications.
Special attention will be placed on the evaluation of the different communication paths and also on the improvement of localization and positioning with the aim of enhancing the reliability and cost-effectiveness in the transmission of data. For evaluation and impact assessment purposes an Evaluation Framework will be set up and agreed, specifying the KPIs, the overall methodology, and the data to be collected and shared from the individual pilots.

For more details, please contact: e.catana@mail.ertico.com