NHTSA scraps proposed vehicle-to-vehicle communication mandate

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety regulators have withdrawn a proposed rule that would have required all new cars and light trucks to be equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems.

In a federal document slated to be published Monday, NHTSA said it was scrapping its 2017 proposal because of the emergence of new technologies such as cellular vehicle-to-everything, or C-V2X, and a Federal Communications Commission decision in 2020 to split a key spectrum band that was long reserved for automakers.

The proposed rule, which was announced during the last days of the Obama administration, would have created a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard for V2V communications. If finalized, it would have required all new vehicles to have dedicated short-range communication, or DSRC, systems that transmit and receive basic messages about the vehicles' speed, direction, braking and other data.

DSRC systems, which are separate but complementary to advanced driver-assistance systems, allow cars to "talk" to other vehicles on the road and to infrastructure equipped with the systems, allowing drivers to "see" around corners. When received in a timely manner, the information could alert drivers to potential crash situations with other vehicles.

NHTSA's decision to scrap the proposal comes after the FCC voted to transition the upper 30 megahertz of the 5.9 gigahertz spectrum band away from DSRC to enable C-V2X and use the other 45 MHz for wireless. The action was opposed by automakers and some U.S. agencies.

V2X allows vehicles on the road to communicate wirelessly with other vehicles and infrastructure such as traffic signals, but the technology has not yet been widely adopted by automakers and other stakeholders in U.S.

"Given the advent of new V2V communications protocol and the revised regulations governing the 5.9 GHz band, the agency believes a regulatory action to revise the proposed rulemaking cannot be reasonably accomplished at this time," Ann Carlson, NHTSA's acting administrator, wrote in the withdrawal notice.

Carlson said the agency will "continue to monitor the development of V2V technology for possible future vehicle safety applications."

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a group that represents most major automakers and other auto companies in the U.S., welcomed NHTSA’s decision.

“This decision provides important clarity — something we’ve been calling on the federal government to provide for a while,” Hilary Cain, the alliance’s vice president of technology, innovation and mobility policy, said in a statement to Automotive News.

“We’ve urged NHTSA to either move forward with or formally withdraw the proposed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard on V2V,” she continued. “The long-standing uncertainty over whether or not the agency was going to continue to pursue a mandate — and, if so, what the mandate would include — has certainly challenged product planning in this area.”

A 2022 policy agenda on V2X from the alliance also called on NHTSA to provide clarity on the proposal, specifically whether it would be finalized or withdrawn.

In a webinar last year, John Bozzella, CEO of the alliance, said the private sector is "heavily investing" in V2X technology but that the U.S. also needs "a regulatory and policy environment that supports and facilitates V2X adoption and use."