Ford and St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University have entered the final phase of a large-scale research project that started in 2012 to enhance vehicle communication technology.
The company aims to develop a technology that will connect drivers and service providers with information and services on the cloud.
According to Ford, presently communication between vehicles and the cloud is not reliable due to wireless network overload or poor connectivity and it hopes to address the issue with the initiative.
St. Petersburg contributed its telemetric expertise to the project and used data collected from moving vehicles, which featured a variety of capabilities for a connection to the cloud cellular, Wi-Fi, and communication with other vehicles and the infrastructure.
The team also created an intelligent connectivity manager to transmit data to the cloud that allows each vehicle to assess the quality of communication channels and to transmit data.
The team tried to facilitate sharing critical information regarding a road emergency with drivers in an area that has poor connectivity.
The intelligent connectivity manager is capable of transmitting a warning to drivers about dangerous conditions through vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and it can check the coverage map to determine the best point for service delivery.
They also developed a small-scale connectivity coverage map that keeps the features of the landscape.
Ford said that in future information will be collected from hundreds of vehicles at once and a universal connectivity map will reflect the current data at all times.
The company believes that a vehicle with the most stable connection will act as a source of information services, enhancing the connected experience for the entire motoring community.
St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University telematics head Vladimir Zaborovsky said: "The developed solutions are of high reliability, scaleability and adaptability, and they open broad prospects for application - both in transportation logistics and in space robotics.
"We're looking forward to further collaborating with our colleagues from Ford."
The project is expected to be finalized by year-end and Ford is likely to include it in its production programs - including vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the delivery of emergency messages and over-the-air software updates.
Connecting vehicles to cloud based solution is becoming popular amongst automakers as previously BMW and electric carmaker Tesla started providing software updates to vehicles over the cloud.
