Kia Mobility Says ‘5G’ Is Essential For Autonomous Cars

Henry Bzeih, managing director of Kia Mobility says for autonomous vehicles 5G wireless technology is an essential component of that plan.

For autonomous vehicles, the automaker has big plans to have level 5 autonomous autos on the road by 2030. According to a statement by Henry Bzeih, autonomous cars are possible but can never reach up to full potential without 5G, because there are too many features that depend on it, a report claimed by androidheadlines.

Level 5, represents an autonomous vehicle that is fully capable of handling any road in under any conditions completely on its own. The company has a goal of 2025 for level 4 capabilities and for level 5 goal of 2030. The other manufacturers are already testing level 4 autonomy. Kia mobility itself plans to for level 3 to have capable vehicles by the year 2020. However, Henry Bzeih says that without better connectivity technologies it is not going to work perfectly.

Henry Bzeih said Kia mobility expects to be building cars of "Level 3" autonomy capable by 2020. These Level 3 vehicles will enable drivers to safely turn their attention from driving tasks in known, limited environments such as freeways. The company expects to be building cars of "Level 4" will have   capabilities with autonomous and saves for conditions like inclement weather, by 2025.

"The autonomous car without any connectivity you can drive, but you will not going to realize its full potential without it, because most of the features of autonomous car depends upon high wireless connectivity," said Henry Bzeih, managing director Kia mobility, speaking today at a FierceWireless CES discussing about potential 5G use cases, that was sponsored by Ericsson and Qualcomm.

"We cannot achieve this goal with the current wireless technology," Henry Bzeih said. "If 5G won't be there then the features of" Level 4" and "Level 5" can't be fulfilling with current wireless technology.