US Department Of Transportation To Require All cars To Have V2V Communications

If a new rule is approved, United States Department of Transportation (DoT) might require new cars to include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology.

At the moment the new rule to make the V2V system required on all new light-vehicles is only a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, a required notification from the Department of Transportation. It is now open to a comment period of 90 days. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will then have the final say whether or not the new rule becomes a requirement. So a lot of steps remain.

The DOT states that no personal information about the driver or vehicle will be broadcast using V2V. Only generic safety information will be sent and received. How that will work remains to be seen.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a release, “Once deployed, V2V will provide 360-degree situational awareness on the road and will help us enhance vehicle safety.” The NHTSA estimates that the added safety benefits from V2V and V2I could eliminate up to 80 percent of the non-impaired view accidents on the road today.

The NHTSA will also make sure the system is safe from a cybersecurity standpoint, that the data sent is protected from any digital attacks.