Agency Plans to Mandate ‘Talking’ Cars in Future

WASHINGTON (CN) - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced plans to require cars to be able to communicate with one another.

Vehicle-to-vehicle, or "V2V" technology is a developing field that sends warning messages to drivers about cars' speed and direction and potential risks, to prevent car crashes, especially in intersections.

The technology could prevent more than half a million crashes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wrote in a technical report.

The agency plans to establish minimum performance requirements for V2V devices and messages in light duty cars and trucks.

"V2V begins to provide safety benefits only if a significant number of vehicles in the fleet are equipped with it and if there is a means to ensure secure and reliable communication between vehicles," the agency wrote.

"NHTSA believes that no single manufacturer would have the incentive to build vehicles able to 'talk' to other vehicles, if there are no other vehicles to talk to--leading to likely market failure without the creation of a mandate to induce collective action."

The agency found in its report that just two V2V applications, intersection movement assist and left turn assist could prevent up to 592,000 crashes and save more than a thousand lives each year.

The agency seeks comments on its proposal, including whether its initial analysis of the V2V applications' potential is accurate, and how the agency can evaluate improvements in the technology.

The agency also said that in the near future it will request information from private entities about the creation of a credential management system for V2V.

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