DOT Accelerates Work on Deployment of Connected Vehicle Technology to Prevent Crashes

drawing of road and train mapping

Officials with the US Department of Transportation are revving up work toward the deployment of Connected Vehicle Technology, designed to ultimately prevent hundreds of thousands of automobile crashes, potentially saving countless lives.

The DOT's proposed rule calls for accelerating the deployment of connected vehicle technologies throughout the nation's light vehicle fleet, enabling vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology on all new light-duty vehicles. This will allow crash-avoidance applications to essentially talk to each other via standardized messaging platforms in an effort to drastically reduce the number of auto accidents on America's roadways daily.

“We are carrying the ball as far as we can to realize the potential of transportation technology to save lives,” said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said of the project, first announced in February 2014. “Once deployed, V2V will provide 360-degree situational awareness on the road and will help us enhance vehicle safety.”

the National Safety Council estimates that upward of 38,300 people were killed on US roads in 2015, and roughly 4.4 million sustained injuries that resulted in medical consultations. Mark Rosekind, Administrator of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, refers to V2V technology as the “silver bullet” in saving lives on the roadways.

“V2V and automated vehicle technologies each hold great potential to make our roads safer, and when combined, their potential is untold,” Rosekind says.

Meanwhile, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration is developing guidance for vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications, which will help transportation planners integrate the technologies that allow vehicles to talk with roadway infrastructure features including traffic lights, and stop signs, and work zones to improve mobility, reduce congestion and improve safety.

V2V devices work by using dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) to transmit data including location, direction, and speed, to nearby vehicles. Data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles, helping them to identify risks and provide warnings to drivers to avoid imminent crashes, even when threat situations are hundreds of yards away and often in situations in which the driver and on-board sensors alone cannot detect the threat. NHTSA estimates that V2V- and V2I-enabled safety applications could eliminate or mitigate the severity of up to 80 percent of crashes that don't involve impaired drivers.

In case you're concerned about privacy, federal safety officials assure you that V2V technology does not involve the exchange of information linked or linkable to an individual and that the ultimately approved rule would require extensive privacy and security controls in all V2V devices.

We here at Shackow & Mercadante are anxiously watching the progression of V2V, V2I, and other technologies designed to save lives while protecting privacy. If you or your loved ones are injured or lost in an auto accident caused by someone else's negligence or an automotive defect, call 877-798-7700 to speak with an auto accident attorney with Gainesville's Shackow & Mercadante.