What Will Bring Vehicular Communication into Passenger Cars? [Editor's Column]

Vehicular communication enables vehicles to exchange data autonomously among each other or with the infrastructure via a standardized radio interface. In the long term, vehicular communication as an enabler of co-operative traffic bears a huge potential benefit for road safety, traffic flow and efficiency, as well as for traveler information and comfort. Clearly, the requirements on communication will be different among the broad variety of applications. Communication for safety-critical co-operative driving maneuvers, for instance, requires fast, dedicated and trusted communications, while parking place reservation may be implemented with a standard mobile phone device. Open technical challenges concerning security, privacy, and reliability are addressed by a variety of research initiatives such as the European Car-2-Car consortium, or the DSRC in North America.