In fact, connectivity and automation are two entirely different technologies, although they share many objectives in terms of improving safety and mobility. Many in the industry believe that the combined use of the two technologies is necessary to achieve the most positive outcomes.

Connected vehicle (CV) refers to the digital exchange of data between vehicles (vehicle to vehicle or V2V), other transportation users (vehicle to anything, or V2X), and the roadside (vehicle to infrastructure, or V2I), using wireless communications.

CVs will continuously broadcast information (including location, speed, acceleration, heading and other parameters) to nearby vehicles that can use the information to identify a potential collision, for example. The radio technology used can detect a nearby vehicle maneuver that may be a threat outside of the immediate field of view for the driver—such as two vehicles ahead suddenly stopping—and alert the driver of the threat.

As the name implies, automated driving systems automate some or all the driving tasks performed by humans. To understand and respond to their surroundings, including infrastructure and other roadway users, automated vehicles (AV) generally rely on a suite of sensors, such as radar, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and vision systems, as well as high-resolution digital mapping.

While AVs are most commonly thought of as fully self-driving vehicles that can execute all driving tasks independently, there is a wide range of automated features, many of which are available today—such as parallel parking assist, emergency braking functions, and adaptive cruise control—which provides limited automated driving functions on highways.

The Society of Automotive Engineers has defined levels of automation on a 0-5 system, with Level 5 representing full automation under all driving conditions. Today, vehicles with Level 1 and even some Level 2 functionality are commercially available.