Vodafone delivers 5G for car engineering specialist Horiba Mira

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The UK’s move towards autonomous vehicles has been boosted by a new partnership with Vodfone to introduce a 5G network at Horiba Mira’s Nuneaton HQ.

Horiba Mira.
(Image credit: Horiba Mira.)

Horiba Mira – formerly the Motor Industry Research Association – is a UK-based automotive engineering and development company, and it has announced a new partnership with Vodafone to deploy a 5G network at the company’s HQ in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Vodafone will install a 5G network that provides Horiba Mira with faster data speeds, and lower latency, which will enable the company to explore new 5G use cases in the motor industry, and test autonomous vehicles that communicate with each other and the surrounding infrastructure.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Vodafone in bringing 5G to our Nuneaton headquarters, which, working alongside automakers around the world over the last decade, puts us at the forefront of developing and verifying cutting-edge driverless technologies,” said Chris Reeves, head of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies at Horiba Mira.

"Having access to Vodafone’s 5G technology is a huge boost for the sector as a whole."

Chris Reeves, Horiba Mira.

“As the self-driving industry transitions from developing standalone autonomous vehicles, to delivering self-driving vehicles that can communicate with each other and the surrounding infrastructure, having access to Vodafone’s 5G technology is a huge boost for the sector as a whole. It will enable us to work and collaborate with the industry’s biggest players to ensure their technologies are safe, robust, convenient and efficient to hit our roads in the near future,” Reeves said.

Horiba's technology park

Horiba Mira’s Technology Park is an 850 acre site, which became a UK government enterprise zone in 2011, and this partnership will expand the possibilities at the Park, which already includes research on the cybersecurity threats that face driverless technologies.

Horiba Mira works with vehicle manufacturers and suppliers around the world, providing individual product testing, as well as specific engineering design, development and build programmes. And with the introduction of a Vodafone 5G network, Horiba Mira will be able to deliver new services, focussing on the performance and capability of connected and driverless vehicles.  

“Our 5G technology makes self-driving vehicles on our roads not just a possibility, but a reality. This mobile private network will play a huge role in supporting Horiba Mira’s cutting edge work on the development and testing of driverless technologies,” concluded Anne Sheehan, business director at Vodafone UK.

Dan Oliver
Dan Oliver

Dan is a British journalist with 20 years of experience in the design and tech sectors, producing content for the likes of Microsoft, Adobe, Dell and The Sunday Times. In 2012 he helped launch the world's number one design blog, Creative Bloq. Dan is now editor-in-chief at 5Gradar, where he oversees news, insight and reviews, providing an invaluable resource for anyone looking to stay up-to-date with the key issues facing 5G.