The exhibit shows how the two vehicles can communicate, giving visual and sound signals to war of their presence, and uses the standard developed by ETSI’s oneM2M partnership project. The system can warn motorists of the tractor’s presence at a distance of one kilometre, to avoid a potential collision.
Every year, almost 400 fatal accidents are caused in Europe by farm vehicles that are not clearly visible on the road, especially in rural areas. Drivers are surprised by tractors traveling at much lower speeds than their car, and occupying the entire width of the road, which means that the drivers cannot take evasive action or brake in time. Farm machinery manufacturers are seeking to halve the number of fatal accidents that occur annually by 2035.
“The European Commission wanted to improve road safety between farm vehicles and other vehicles. John Deere responded to this demand by equipping its tractors with modems,” said Christophe Gossard, head of European regulatory affairs at John Deere. “But, more importantly, the different road-going vehicles and their means of communication had to be interoperable. So, it was only natural for us to join ETSI, the only European standardisation organisation with the necessary experience in these areas.”
“ETSI is renowned for its telecommunications standards, but since we started working on 5G and the Internet of Things, we have welcomed some new actors into our groups. They are from the worlds of agriculture, smart cities, eHealth and connected transport”, said ETSI’s director general, Luis Jorge Romero. “Today, information and communication technologies include all the smart equipment that we find every day, both at home and at work.”
