Kiwi-made driverless car maker Ohmio collaborates with Spark's 5G innovation lab

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Spark is showcasing driverless cars as yet another use for the speedy 5G network that is at least another year away from being available in New Zealand.

The telco has collaborated with Kiwi start-up Ohmio, which has been trialling autonomous vehicles at Christchurch airport, to use its electric driverless cars on Spark's 5G testing playground at Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.

Ohmiowants its cars to be a first and last mile mode of transport to large bus stations or ferry terminals, carrying four people at a time, and could become a popular sight by the time the America's Cup comes around.

Ohmio's head of research and development Mahmood Hikmet said the 5G network had the potential to be 100 times faster than 4G, allowing autonomous cars to make decisions faster.

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5G's faster speed would give driverless cars 'human-like reflexes' and opened multiple possibilities smart city infrastructure systems, Hikmet said.

The Ohmio driverless car works like a autonomous tram using virtual tracks and 5G technology to guide it.

Passengers can hail the car using a tablet on a predetermined route. The prototypes travels at 7kmh, and have a top speed of 25kmh.

The car's dashboard showed passengers what the car was monitoring in real time using Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology, that creates a 3D image of its surroundings, to help it navigate, Hikmet said.

Ohmio launched its driverless prototype at Spark's Innovation Lab in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.

'It works like a autonomous tram, but rather than having infrastructure based tracks, you have virtual tracks in software, which makes it easier to change the route of the vehicle if we need to,' he said.

Ohmio wants to launch more driverless cars in closed facilities like university campuses, retirement villages and hospitals, although it has no set timeframe on when the first commercial driverless vehicles will be available to the public.

The next step for Ohmio was to gain on-road certification and test the cars on public streets alongside regular vehicles, Hikmet said.

Spark's has two 5G network towers outside its lab which are equipped by Chinese tech giant Huawei.

There, Spark is working with other businesses to build products including virtual reality experiences, which will be used for the America's Cup in 2021.

Communications Minister Kris Faafoi said last month that he believed 5G services would become available in New Zealand next year. A government auction of 5G radio spectrum would take place early next year.

Spark had been pressing Faafoi for an auction date.

Spark spokesman Andrew Pirie said it had originally hoped the auction would take place this year.

'We are disappointed, to a degree, that it is a bit later than we hoped it might be.'

The auction will only be for the right to use 5G spectrum from November 2022.

But the auction would clear the way for Spark and other mobile network companies to reach agreements with existing rights holders to launch services earlier.

In December, the Government Communications Security Bureau blocked a proposal by Spark to use Huawei equipment to upgrade its mobile network to 5G, citing 'significant network security risks'.

Specifically, Spark wanted to continue to use Huawei's 5G RAN technology in its evolution of the network – alongside technology from Cisco and Nokia – but was told this would 'raise significant national security risks'. Huawei equipment is already used for the current 4G network.