10 votes

Everyone is framing 5G as a "race", but nobody seems to be able to explain why it matters who wins

4 comments

  1. [3]
    Deimos
    Link
    I thought this article does a good job of pointing out that we should try to be more skeptical about how some stories are being framed. Like it says, there are all these statements about how 5G...

    I thought this article does a good job of pointing out that we should try to be more skeptical about how some stories are being framed. Like it says, there are all these statements about how 5G will enable self-driving cars and other technologies, but I've certainly never seen anyone saying anything like, "these self-driving cars are totally ready to go except that we don't have 5G yet". I'm sure it'll have some benefits, but there are a lot of legitimate concerns coming up as well, and there doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to rush it.

    13 votes
    1. unknown user
      Link Parent
      5G actually seems kind of worse for cars than just high quality LTE. With the low signal penetration, there's going to be constant handoffs and dropouts. It seems to me like it's a solution...

      5G actually seems kind of worse for cars than just high quality LTE. With the low signal penetration, there's going to be constant handoffs and dropouts. It seems to me like it's a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist. Tesla's enhanced cruise control cars do perfectly fine with the occasional map update and software update when connected to WiFi at home. How would this be any better with 5G?

      5 votes
    2. papasquat
      Link Parent
      I don't see how it could possibly have anything to do with self driving cars. If the technology for car to car communication and collaborative driving existed, maybe, possible, sorta I could see...

      I don't see how it could possibly have anything to do with self driving cars. If the technology for car to car communication and collaborative driving existed, maybe, possible, sorta I could see it using 5g, but it wouldn't exactly be bandwidth heavy data. I don't see why it couldn't use 4g or even 3g. Everything about 5g just screams of a collaborative effort between companies and governments to hype up a technology that just isn't really all that useful. I don't know if this is due to lobbying or campaign contributions by telecoms or just ignorance, but it feels like everyone is living in a collective delusion bubble about the technology despite the specs being out there in the open, and numerous experts going on the record that 5g can't solve its glaring limitations.

      3 votes
  2. Abrown
    Link
    Every article I've seen about the "Race to 5g" has been framed around the economic impact that 5g is purported to bring. "4g added 100k jobs and $10B to the economy but 5g will bring $100B+ and...

    Every article I've seen about the "Race to 5g" has been framed around the economic impact that 5g is purported to bring. "4g added 100k jobs and $10B to the economy but 5g will bring $100B+ and 400k jobs to the economy". Further, those arguments have been framed to seem like it's an all or nothing scenario and those jobs/money will only happen if the USA gets there first, as if those jobs and money are some finite resource or "reward" for getting there first that's only able to be claimed by the victor.

    Given that 5g has such a limited use-case right now, I can imagine the only real benefit from winning the race is more of a "cultural victory"/bragging rights than anything else.

    5 votes