Relaxed drive to the parking garage: The driver gets into the connected electric car and selects a free charging station in a parking garage at the destination via a smartphone app. The smartphone receives information about free spaces in car parks near the destination via the digital radio standard DAB+ (Digital Audio Broadcasting) using the data protocol TPEG (Transport Protocol Expert Group)-EMI (Electromobility Charging Infrastructure).

During the drive, the car communicates with the traffic light, which it will pass shortly. The speed of the car is then automatically adjusted so that the intersection can be passed at the green phase. This not only saves time, but also the energy that would have been consumed by braking and accelerating. A warning appears shortly before the destination: Animals on the road! The message was transmitted to the smartphone in the TPEG-TEC (Traffic Event Compact) data protocol for traffic and travel information. Depending on the radio connection, these messages are also sent via DAB+ or the Internet. DAB+ has the advantage that the radio signal has a higher coverage and there are no costs for mobile data use.

Shortly before the parking garage, the car communicates with the barrier via vehicle-to-x communication. The vehicle's pre-registered booking is checked. The pseudonymized ID authentication guarantees a data protection-friendly design in terms of “Data Protection by Design”. The barrier opens and the vehicle is driven autonomously to the booked parking space. Shortly before the parking slot, the vehicle communicates via RFID with the charging station to start charging. The driver can follow the charging progress at any time via a smartphone app. If the driver needs the car, he or she can use a secure connection to tell the vehicle to drive to the car park entrance.

For the above mentioned applications, the partners of the research project “Integrated Communication Platform for Automated Electric Vehicles” (i-KoPA) have used a communication approach that combines different technologies: Car-to-X communication, Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB+), RFID and mobile radio. In addition, they have integrated driver assistance system architectures to support highly and fully automated driving maneuvers. The electronic systems of the electric vehicles can exchange data with service providers in a secure manner via the “Car2X System Alliance”, a consortium of automobile manufacturers and infrastructure providers. A particular focus of the project is the development of concepts to secure the privacy of the participants during communication. For this purpose, existing and newly developed communication concepts and mechanisms for pseudonymization were brought together. The integration of the traffic infrastructure, such as traffic lights and charging stations, enables new and optimized driving, parking and charging functions with a high and up-to full degree of automation.

Dr. Ilja Radusch, director of the Smart Mobility business unit at Fraunhofer FOKUS and the Daimler Center for Automotive Information Technology Innovations (DCAITI) at TU Berlin, sums up: “The prototype applications of the iKoPA communication system were tested both virtually and practically. We will now integrate them into our Berlin test field and intend to supplement further services with partners in the future to support secure, data protection-friendly and sustainable mobility in the city.”

The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and consists of the following partners:

Bayerische Medien Technik (bmt) GmbH, Fraunhofer-Institut für Offene Kommunikationssysteme (FOKUS), Fraunhofer-Institut für Sichere Informationstechnologie (SIT), Daimler Center for Automotive Information Technology Innovations (DCAITI) of TU Berlin, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes (htw saar), NXP Semiconductors Germany GmbH, SWARCO Traffic Systems GmbH and the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein (ULD).

The closing event of the iKoPA project will take place in conjunction with the symposium “Research and Technology for Automated and Networked Driving”, which is organized by the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMVI).

Press representatives are welcome to register for a demo ride.