A Fellow of Queens College, Cambridge is suggesting that “clever” driverless cars could cope with 2G connectivity, and that improving their sensors is a faster way to deployment, rather than relying on 5G communications.

Dr Ramsey Faragher, who’s also CEO of FocalPoint, told TU-Automotive that cheap software can bridge the gap to truly smart automated transport rather than adding more expensive hardware.

He said the burden on bandwidth is driven by an increase in connected cars that is on a “steep upward curve” and that, “One of the solutions could be that we stop relying on the connectivity and make the vehicles so ‘clever’ that they barely need any communication with the rest of the world to function well.”