On the Ground at OmniAir Plugfest

published

09.07.2021

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Innovation flourished at the OmniAir Michigan Plugfest. The energy was electric, and you could sense a strong feeling of community among competitors working together to advance the future of mobility.

Sponsored by NI, this week-long testing event, which ran from June 14–18, brought together leading C-V2X device manufacturers, test laboratories, and test equipment providers from around the world, all focused on improving industry performance.

NI’s Principal Business Development Manager Kitt Farrar recently expressed his enthusiasm for the event, saying, “NI is proud to participate in the OmniAir Plugfest to help accelerate the connected vehicle through our contributions in testing C-V2X functionality and operability.”

The Future of Mobility

For those who attended the OmniAir Michigan Plugfest, this event was unlike any other that came before it. This marked the first Plugfest in North America focused exclusively on the testing and readiness of C-V2X-based connected vehicle technologies. 

C-V2X, or cellular vehicle-to-everything, is a key technology in automotive engineering. The development of this technology will allow vehicles to directly communicate with each other and roadside infrastructure, improving traffic efficiency and smart mobility.

Advancing efficient C-V2X technology also ensures a more sustainable future for mobility and accelerates the path to Vision Zero. How? C-V2X may help eliminate emissions, collisions, and congestion by using real-time traffic information to enable connected vehicles to anticipate and react to dangerous situations and minimize clogged highways.

Collaboration Is Crucial

The journey to realizing the full potential of C-V2X is ongoing, and at the heart of this journey is test and collaboration among industry leaders. 

“If you look at the whole life cycle of creating a technology, one of the things that needs to happen is multivendor interoperability,” notes Director of Technical Standards at Qualcomm, Jim Lansford. “We need to have multiple companies coming together and making sure their products all work with each other.”

The importance of events like the OmniAir Michigan Plugfest is underscored by the need for systems to interact efficiently with other vehicles, pedestrians, and surrounding infrastructure. Plugfests like these provide a much-needed opportunity to find failures early, and safely, so that we can achieve our goals together.

Join us for the next OmniAir Plugfest, November 8–12, at the Transportation Research Center. Located in East Liberty, Ohio, the center is North America’s largest multiuser automotive proving ground.