As part of the "5G for Sweden" initiative, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) is joining forces with Scania and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology to develop products via their Integrated Transport Research Lab (ITRL). The joint initiative will explore areas such as autonomous buses and improved systems for traffic management.
"The intention of the research is to validate and evolve technologies and solutions that can benefit transport infrastructure in the future," said Sara Mazur, head of research at Ericsson, in a release. "Our expectation is to develop and introduce new products and new business models in cooperation with Scania for the transport sector, as well as other new markets."
Technology experts from Ericsson will contribute, along with scientists from the Royal Institute and experts from commercial automaker Scania. The ITRL Lab is set to run until the end of June 2021.
Ericsson announced the 5G for Sweden initiative last month. The program aims to strengthen industry competitiveness through research, innovation and industrial pilot projects. The idea is to apply research across industries to create new projects at universities as well as through industry pilots.
Besides the Royal Institute of Technology and Scania, partners in the project include Volvo Construction Equipment, Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University, the Institute of Technology, Linköping University and Swedish ICT--Part of RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden).
Last year, Volvo said it planned to unleash 100 autonomous driven cars on the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2017. The program will take advantage of Ericsson's Connected Vehicle Cloud system, which gives drivers and passengers access to navigation and entertainment from a screen in a car. Volvo was Ericsson's first customer to use the Connected Vehicle Cloud platform, in a deal announced in 2012.
In the U.S., groups such as NYU Wireless say the U.S. is falling behind in R&D in the global race to 5G, and they are urging the FCC to make millimeter-wave spectrum available for commercial use to stimulate private capital investment.
For more:
- see the press release
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