Overview of the 26th ITS World Conference
The 26th ITS World Conference was held from Monday, October 21 to Friday, October 25, 2019 at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre in Singapore. It was supported by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore and ITS Singapore. Experts who are working on issues related to ITS from around the world, including government officials, attended presentations and demonstrations related to the conference topic, Smart Mobility, Empowering Cities.
The ITS Info Communications Forum and the Fifth Generation Mobile Communication Promotion Forum (5GMF) jointly sponsored a booth as part of the Japan Pavilion in the conference exhibition hall. The booth introduced the state of ongoing activities in Japan while distributing reports and booklets on those activities, which generated a high level of interest from those working in the field of ITS.
Event Overview
・Date: Monday, October 21 to Friday, October 25, 2019
・Participants: about 14,500 *
・Presenters: 752 *
・Participating nations: 90 *
・Participating organizations: 321 *
(* = preliminary count)
On October 21 Special Interest Session (SIS) 02, entitled “Radio Communication to Realise Connected Vehicles” was held. The session’s moderator was the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB)’s Mr. Oyama Satoshi. It brought together representatives from the ITU-R, officials from Japan, the US, and Europe, as well as experts from the private sector to discuss various links and connections between technologies such as DSRC and LTE/5G-V2X. Mr. Hara Koji, from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) gave a presentation on Japan’s ITS strategy.
The following three sessions were held on October 23: Asia Pacific (AP) 04, SIS 29, and Associated Event (AE) 08.
Session AP 04 was titled “The Role of Government for Deploying Connected and Automated Vehicle in Japan”. Mr. Igarashi Hirokazu from the MIC in Japan gave a talk on his ministry’s recent activities, including how ETC, ITS Connect, and 5G relate to the state of mobility services as well as ITS related activities concerning technological studies on connected cars in Japan.
Session SIS 29 was titled “5G for ITS: The Future Baseline for Inter-modal Mobility and Automated Driving”. NTT DOCOMO’s Mr. Nagata Satoshi from Japan gave a presentation entitled “LTE/5G V2X and NTT DOCOMO Activity”, which provided an overview on the current state of cellular V2X and related NTT DOCOMO activities.
Session AE 08 included presentations related to the theme of “5G and IoT Boosting the Digital Transformation of the Automotive Sector”. From Japan, the 5GMF’s Secretary General Mr. Ohmura Yoshinori gave a presentation on the activities of the 5GMF, the state of marketization of IOT and 5G in Japan, and the possibilities of business models related to 5G-IoT.
The ITS Japan and 5GMF booth was one of the many exhibition booths which comprised the Japan Pavilion, which was located in the center of the exhibition hall. Each individual booth displayed panels and videos that introduced a variety of ongoing activities in Japan. In addition, these booths distributed pamphlets and reports summarizing the results of completed activities. The Toyota booth included a section that attracted particular attention from attendees. Entitled “V2X Toward Ultimate Goal of Zero Crashes”, this display introduced “ITS Connect”, as well as compared DSRC（802.11bd/NGV：Next-Generation V2X）and V2X（LTE/NR：New Radio）.
The ITS Info Communications Forum (right)
On the final day of the conference an awards ceremony honoring the best presentations was held. The conference concluded with the announcement of the next ITS World Conference, supported by ITS America and entitled “The New Age of Mobility”. It will be held in Los Angeles from October 4 to October 8, 2020.
