AT&T and the American Center for Mobility are entering a new self-driving vehicles partnership, the two companies announced yesterday at CES. Their collaboration will primarily be focused on pushing further advancements in the field. AT&T agreed to serve as an exclusive wireless service provider of the Center for the next three years. In addition to testing its own experimental technologies in the Center, the second largest wireless carrier in the United States is also hoping to use this partnership to position itself as one of the key players in this emerging industry. Chris Penrose, President of Internet of Things Solutions at AT&T, said that the two parties are hoping to help create a driverless future that’s both scalable and effective, as well as safe.
The American Center for Mobility located in Ypsilanti, Michigan is one of the largest facilities for testing autonomous vehicles in the world that’s experimenting with all kinds of self-driving and connected vehicles. This partnership will see the Center benefit from using AT&T’s services and technologies in exchange for providing the Dallas-based wireless carrier with an environment for testing its own IoT and related solutions. Additionally, the two parties will collaborate on several joint projects aimed at advancing the self-driving automotive industry. AT&T and the American Center for Mobility are hoping to develop new network security products and solutions for connecting public roads and making them more suitable for self-driving vehicles to operate on. Other technologies that this partnership is planning to develop include driving assistance systems, automatic braking solutions, and smart windshield wipers. Finally, AT&T is also hoping to use the Center’s facilities to test new LTE and other network technologies within all kinds of connected and automated vehicles that the Center is currently developing.
Ultimately, AT&T and the Center are hoping to create a universal framework that would allow communications between all types of automated vehicles, regardless of their brand, location, and cellular provider. They’re planning to achieve all of those goals by 2020, just in time to integrate their technologies into the first generation of commercial self-driving vehicles. More information on this endeavor is expected to follow soon.