Porsche, Vodafone and HERE Technologies have teamed up to trial ways to use 5G and precise geo-location technology to reduce the number of road accidents at the Vodafone 5G Mobility Lab in Aldenhoven in Northern Germany.

The three companies are collaborating in the development of a real-time warning system so that vehicles and their drivers can receive hazard warnings directly using 5G mobile network technology delivered using the intelligent message broker MQTT network protocol.

Following initial tests in Aldenhoven, HERE Technologies, Porsche and Vodafone plan to further optimise the real-time warning system and evaluate its potential in a range of locations and weather conditions.

Built around the Live Sense SDK technology from HERE, the trial system will use computer vision and artificial intelligence to “identify objects and changes in the behaviour of other road users or road conditions not visible to drivers that could lead to hazardous situations”.

According to André Schlufter, who is responsible for connectivity and SIM management at Porsche, by using 5G mobile network technology hazard warnings can be delivered to the road user “in real time with a latency of less than ten milliseconds”.

Michael Reinartz, director of innovation at Vodafone Germany, said, ““If cars warn each other about hazards in real time, human lives can be saved.”