When self-driving cars hit the roads, they will need real-time information about other road users – ideally by exchanging sensor data with each other and with the infrastructure. A research project by VIRTUAL VEHICLE Research GmbH in Graz has developed the vehicleCAPTAIN toolbox for this purpose. The compact, modular and flexible platform significantly reduces the initial development effort for young R&D facilities and start-ups. The research team led by DI Christoph Pilz has now been awarded the Styria 2024 Innovation Prize in the “Digitalization / R&D Institutions” category.

If the car itself knows the best shortcut and knows which roads are closed at that moment, then V2X could be behind it. Because humans don’t have to communicate with each other. It is enough for the vehicles to communicate with each other. The vehicle-to-everything concept, or V2X for short, is a pioneering approach in the automotive industry. It is about how vehicles communicate with their surroundings.

The cars are not only connected to each other, but also to the traffic infrastructure, pedestrians and other road users and can, for example, exchange information about accidents and obstacles in real time. V2X can also optimize traffic flow by informing vehicles about optimal routes and thus making traffic more efficient overall.