The Advanced First Responder Vehicle: A Prototype for the Autonomous Car

Kymeta recently did a study on the parallels between autonomous and first responder vehicles. The study concluded that the implementation of communications and computing capabilities like hybrid cellular-satellite connectivity, data collection from cameras and sensors and onboard processing in first responder vehicles provides a model for the designers of tomorrow’s autonomous vehicles. The Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) estimates that the data volume per vehicle by 2025 will approach 10 exabytes per month, up to 10,000 times more than the present volume. The transfer of enormous amounts of data to and from the vehicle will require it to connect via reliable distributed networks to the cloud, other vehicles, and the surrounding infrastructure.

This study talks about the challenging requirements of high data volume and constant connection that will have to be met for the success of tomorrow’s autonomous cars and notes these problems are already being faced and solved by the designers of first responder vehicles. The study outlines how first responder solutions can serve as a model for the data and communications architectures of AVs.