Connected car concept. Photo: Creative Commons

Skylo is targeting the vehicle connectivity market, announcing a series of partnerships on Tuesday in its automotive roadmap. Skylo is collaborating with partners BMW Group and Deutsche Telekom to bring non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication to vehicles to support real-time messaging, vehicle status messages, and hazard warnings. 

This week at the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) F2F event, the partners will show the BMW iX2 vehicle connecting to the Skylo non-terrestrial network using a standard SIM provided by Deutsche Telekom. Skylo said its demonstrations at 5GAA are supported by Viasat, which the company collaborates with for the satellite segment of its connectivity. 

Separately, Skylo is working with Cubic³ on an automotive eSIM solution to support both terrestrial and satellite connectivity. This would mean that vehicles equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF chip would be able to maintain connectivity via satellite. 

“Our ongoing collaboration with Skylo and Cubic³ has helped introduce satellite connectivity to vehicles. We are pleased to now achieve a world-first with a unified terrestrial and satellite solution on Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2,” said Jeff Arnold, vice president, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies. “This milestone underscores our commitment to providing automakers and drivers with an always-on connected experience aimed at providing a convenient and safe riding experience.”

In another partnership, Skylo is also working with Qualcomm and Harman on enhanced emergency services, including bidirectional emergency messaging directly from the HarmanReady Connect telematics control unit (TCU).