Washington - The US Department of Transportation (DOT) on Tuesday issued a proposed rule that would introduce vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology into all new light-duty vehicles in the United States.
The proposed rule would enable a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that, once fully deployed, could prevent "hundreds of thousands of crashes every year" by helping vehicles "talk" to each other, the DOT said in a statement.
The US agency expected the rule to be finalized in 2019, followed by a phase-in period in 2021, and full compliance in 2023. "Once deployed, V2V will provide 360-degree situational awareness on the road and will help us enhance vehicle safety," said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
According to the DOT, V2V devices would use the so-called dedicated short range communications to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed, up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles. Such information could help provide warnings to drivers about potentially dangerous situations that could lead to crashes. For example, V2V could help warn a driver that a vehicle ahead is braking and they need to slow down, or let a driver know that it is not safe to proceed through an intersection because another car, unseen by the driver, is quickly approaching.
V2V technology does not involve the exchange of information linked to an individual to protect privacy, the DOT said.
Separately, the Department's Federal Highway Administration plans to soon issue guidance for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications, which will help transportation planners integrate the technologies to allow vehicles to "talk" to roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights, stop signs and work zones to improve mobility, reduce congestion and improve safety.
The DOT estimates that safety applications enabled by V2V and V2I could "eliminate or mitigate the severity of up to 80 percent of non-impaired crashes, including crashes at intersections or while changing lanes."