Direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication is essential to overcome the limitations of sensor-based perception, enabling autonomous, collaborative driving.

At the '2025 e4ds Tech Day' held on the 9th, Ettifos CEO Ho-Jun Kim shared in-depth insights into the communication infrastructure of the autonomous driving era, focusing on the technological advancements and practical application cases of 5G V2X communication.

CEO Kim Ho-jun said that as autonomous driving technology rapidly develops, the importance of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is being highlighted, and in particular, 5G-based V2X communication is receiving attention as a key technology that can dramatically improve the safety and efficiency of autonomous driving, as it offers faster speeds and lower latency than existing LTE-based communication.

Existing autonomous driving systems use various sensors such as cameras, lidar, and radar to recognize the surrounding environment.

On the other hand, it is difficult to achieve complete recognition using sensors alone due to problems such as short detection range, adverse weather conditions, and blind spots.
<br /> CEO Kim Ho-jun explained, “5G V2X communication can transmit information stably over a distance of more than 1km and regardless of weather conditions,” and “it can act as a 360-degree sensor.”

In particular, by exchanging information already determined in real time through information sharing between vehicles, cooperative autonomous driving that surpasses the cognitive capabilities of individual vehicles becomes possible.

This requires large-capacity data transmission of over 100 Mbps and ultra-low latency communication of less than 5 ms, and 5G V2X is the only technology that meets these conditions.

Kim cited the Tesla Model S accident case and pointed out the limitations of sensor-based recognition.

The analysis suggests that the accident, which occurred due to failure to recognize a trailer turning left, could have been avoided if the vehicle had been able to know the trailer's intentions in advance through V2X communication.

“In these situations, services like ‘Left-Hand Assistance’ can help prevent accidents by exchanging messages between vehicles,” he said.

Additionally, the risk of collision between micro-mobility (e-bike, e-scooter) and pedestrians can be reduced through V2X communication.

This method notifies vehicles of the presence of pedestrians or bicycles through a 'Personal Safety Message' and encourages evasive action.

Etiforce, a leading domestic company that developed a 5G V2X communication module, completed interoperability testing in Germany with global company Autotalks.

“In a lab environment, we achieved speeds of over 150 Mbps and latency times of less than 3 ms, and we also demonstrated stable performance in field tests,” said CEO Kim.
> In particular, Etiforce developed a hardware structure that supports both LTE V2X and 5G V2X simultaneously, and designed it to enable technology upgrades in the future without replacing infrastructure.

Testing is also underway based on chipsets manufactured at Samsung fabs, and demonstration projects are accelerating the commercialization of the technology.

The autonomous driving testbed project conducted in Sejong City and Daegu is a representative example that demonstrates Etiphos' technological prowess.

Various experiments have been successfully conducted, including transmitting infrastructure lidar data directly to vehicles and implementing five-channel video streaming for remote driving.

Etiforce's technology is also competitive in the global market, as it is participating in a highway autonomous driving project in cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), and global OEMs such as BMW have announced that they will equip new vehicles with 5G V2X starting in 2028.

CEO Kim Ho-jun said, “The ultimate goal of autonomous driving is safe travel, and to achieve this, cooperation and communication between vehicles are essential.” He added, “Etiforce aims to contribute to advancing the era of autonomous driving not only through technology development but also through verification and commercialization.”

Etiphos's challenge goes beyond simple technological development and represents a significant milestone in enhancing the safety and reliability of autonomous driving. When 5G V2X communication becomes a core infrastructure for autonomous driving, Etiphos will be at the center of it all.