I M A G E C O U R T E S Y O F G M

Technology | DOI: 10.1145/2717177 Tom Geller
Car Talk
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is coming. Are we ready for it?

vest in development if no one else does—or if their technologies do not work together.

“Whenever a system has to be standardized, a mandate has to be given,” says Neelam Barua, automotive and transportation industry analyst for Frost and Sullivan. “That was the case for antilock braking systems and back-up cameras.” As a result, industry groups such as Europe’s CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America have been working to establish standards for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, while governments decide how to implement them.

Barua believes V2X requirements
will be enacted in Europe soon af-
ter European Union-funded trials
are completed this year, although
European automakers prefer a mar-
ket-driven approach. In the U.S., the
DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safe-
ty Administration (NHTSA) paired
the release of its lengthy report with
an “Advance notice of proposed rule-
making” (ANPRM) which “initiates
[proposals] ... to require vehicle-to-ve-
hicle (V2V) communication capability
“V2X”—stand poised for widespread
adoption, appearing in new-model
cars as early as 2016, and they are likely
to be required eventually, despite cur-
rent consumer fears.

Like back-up cams, V2X technologies promise safety advantages even if fully driverless cars never become a reality. A report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in August posited that two specific V2V applications would prevent more than 500,000 crashes and 1,000 deaths per year in the U.S.: “ Intersection Movement Assist” (IMA), which warns of cross-traffic at intersections, and “Left Turn Assist” (LTA), which watches for traffic approaching from the opposite direction when making a left turn. Other anticipated V2V applications could include collision avoidance in stop-and-go traffic and at highway speeds; speed maximization (and gas savings) for signals and traffic, and parking assistance.

While V2X’s proponents tout that drivers remain anonymous under the proposed standards, some applications could also be used by law enforcement, for example to prevent a vehicle from entering a restricted area.

There is a big difference between
onboard sensors and V2X technolo-
gies. A back-up camera is useful the
moment it is installed in a vehicle, re-
gardless of whether any other vehicle
has one. Development continues to be
strong in systems with V2X-like fea-
tures, even though they do not actually
communicate with other cars or road
infrastructure. For example, the 2009
model year saw Opel introduce its quasi-
V2I “Opel Eye” technology, which
uses cameras to recognize road signs
and lane markings; and for the 2014
model year Mercedes-Benz debuted
its quasi-V2V “Distronic Plus” system,
which uses radar to judge distances to
other cars.

True V2X technology offers capabilities those systems could not provide, such as warning of conditions that are undetectable by sight or radar, at a distance up to 300 meters. The message set uniquely identifies vehicles and infrastructure components using a fast point-to-point signal with relatively few protocol requirements.

Governments, Automakers,
and the Public

Yet V2X systems are only as useful as the network to which they are connected, whether that network’s nodes are in other cars (V2V) or on lampposts, traffic lights, or the roadway itself (V2I). That could cause a stalemate, as automakers are loath to in-