Washington DC - Toyota plans to start selling cars in the United States that can talk to each other
using short-range wireless technology in 2021, potentially preventing thousands of
accidents annually.
The company is aiming to adopt the dedicated short-range communications systems in the United States across most of its line-up by the mid-2020s, it said on Monday, in the hope that by announcing its plans, other automakers will follow suit.
The US Transportation Department must decide whether to
adopt a pending proposal that would require all future vehicles
to have this advanced technology. In December 2016 the Obama administration proposed making it a requrement that auto makes adopt the technology and ensure all vehicles "speak the same language through a standard technology", giving them at least four years to
comply.
In 1999 car companies were granted a block of wavelengths in the
5.9 GHz band for "vehicle-to-vehicle" and "vehicle to
infrastructure" communications and have studied the technology
for more than a decade, but it has gone largely unused. Some in
Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission think it
should be opened to other uses.
'Talking' vehicles
In 2017 General Motors Co began offering
vehicle-to-vehicle technologies on its Cadillac CTS model, but
it is currently the only commercially available vehicle with the
system.
'Talking' vehicles, which have been tested in pilot projects
and by US carmakers for more than a decade, use dedicated
short-range communications to transmit data up to 300 metres,
including location, direction and speed. The data is broadcast up to 10 times a second to nearby
vehicles, which can identify risks and provide warnings to avoid
imminent crashes, especially at intersections.
Toyota has installed the technology in more than
100 000 vehicles in Japan since 2015.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in 2017 the regulation could eventually cost $135-$300 (R1600-R3600) per new vehicle, or up to $5 billion (R60 billion) annually but could prevent up to 600 000 crashes and reduce
costs by $71 billion (R850 billion) annually when fully deployed.