A Secure V2X Connected Vehicle Transponder System for Vehicle Prioritization

V2X is an essential enabler for safer roads and future autonomous vehicle technology, but it can also be used for vehicle prioritization applications to help improve the movement of public transit, emergency vehicles, and freight. V2X can enable the roadside infrastructure to automatically recognize the unique properties of a vehicle and take optimal action. In the case of an intersection, the solution can adjust the signal timing (eg. force a green light) depending on the vehicle’s priority, reducing the vehicle’s travel time.

The main challenges to public transit priority, emergency vehicle pre-emption, and integrating freight priority, are that (a) there are no common, secure and jointly managed vehicle identification and role systems, (b) each department has different solutions that rely on non-standardized communication radio systems, and (c) the infrastructure that controls lights has no means of communicating obstacles to connected vehicles and no means of receiving desired route information to enable priority. V2X and the cyber security mechanisms behind V2X, namely the Security Credentials Management System (SCMS), is a key enabler for vehicle prioritization applications to overcome the challenges present.

The paper presents a secure V2X vehicle prioritization solution and corresponding demonstration project to illustrate V2X based vehicle prioritization applications.