March 7, 2023
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Satellite connectivity is being leveraged more and more for uses from agriculture and logistics to energy and transportation, as new solutions and network architectures enable verticals to work together effectively. Within that context, autonomous vehicles are emerging as an attractive niche where satellite technology can shine.
In late February, NOVELSAT announced a new partnership with Guident, a software provider for remote monitoring and control of autonomous vehicles. The solution provides continuous high-quality video and audio streaming with bi-directional, satellite-enabled connectivity for remote monitoring and control of autonomous vehicles.
“The underlying motive is to improve the safety in order to go to market, to remove this hesitation that people have today when they’re thinking about autonomous vehicles,” Aviv Ronai, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at NOVELSAT told Constellations. “With this, we can guarantee the safety of autonomous vehicle fleets…and show that no matter what happens, everything can be monitored and controlled.”
The announcement came at a critical point for the autonomous vehicle market. Several projections have estimated that market will exceed $1 trillion by next decade, encompassing various levels of automation from driver assistance to full autonomy. However, some of the more ambitious timelines that product developers had previously set are colliding with the needs to reach that goal safely. According to a recent KPMG survey, a growing number of global automakers have pushed out their expectations for fully autonomous vehicles to hit the market to beyond 2030 and 2035. This comes amid reports and scrutiny of incidents involving vehicles on autopilot, as well as shifting investment priorities from full autonomy into more practical, supporting features.
“What we see even more is some need for human intervention in some cases, like emergencies,” Ronai said of the road to full autonomy. “Currently, those solutions rely on a mobile network and are therefore confined to a limited space. But if you want to think larger scale deployment to travel distances, then you have to ensure always-on connectivity.”
Read the full article: https://www.kratosdefense.com/constellations/articles/satellite-connectivity-providing-a-bridge-to-fully-autonomous-vehicles
