German Car Scene

VOLKSWAGEN C3WORLD

Posted 11th December, 2007 in Volkswagen | Leave a comment

The second German national IT summit takes place today in Hanover, Germany, in the presence of German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel. Volkswagen and the universities of Braunschweig, Hanover and Oldenburg are presenting the research project C3World – Connected Cars in a Connected World.

Today’s meeting between German IT and telecoms engineers and the top managers from the world of commerce, politics and science focuses on strengthening Germany’s position as an IT centre in the face of international competition. Host and patron Dr. Angela Merkel will learn about strategies, methods and the future C3World project. This project is a research initiative run by Volkswagen in cooperation with the universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, collectively known as NICCIMON (Lower Saxony Competence Centre for information systems for mobile usage). In the C3World working group sponsored by the federal state of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen Electronics Research is working in conjunction with its research partners towards the clearly defined objective of connecting cars with the environment.

The so-called car-to-car or car-to-infrastructure communication technology, which is a type of message exchange system, requires technology that connects vehicles with each other and with the infrastructure. It enables the driver to receive important information, such as traffic jam alerts directly from the vehicles in front. Enabling vehicles to communicate with their environment and with infrastructure makes it possible, for example, to collect current event information from the surrounding area or to find, reserve and pay for a free space in a multi-storey car park. Preparing information specific to the driver and the situation in this way is an important focus of the project. “C3World wants to bring use of the World Wide Web for specific mobility and location-based applications into the car. The future navigation device will become a comprehensive information terminal for Volkswagen customers” according to Prof. Jürgen Leohold, Head of Volkswagen Group Research.

[Source: VW]