Cars that talk: Feds announce plan to accelerate connected vehicle deployment

In an effort to reduce roadway deaths and crashes, the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday rolled out a plan to accelerate the deployment of vehicle-to-everything technology.

Known as V2X, the technology helps vehicles wirelessly communicate with each other and roadside infrastructure, as well as with other road users like bicyclists and pedestrians. It’s existed in some form for decades and has already been deployed in several cities and states, where the technology is used by emergency responders and school bus drivers to remotely trigger green lights, to improve safety at intersections by detecting collisions or vehicles running red lights, and by state DOTs to send driver alerts and update message boards.

But the Biden administration wants to speed up its adoption, and, under its National V2X Deployment Plan, has set a goal of rolling out V2X on 20% of the nation’s highway system by 2028, with the top 75 metropolitan areas having 25% of their signalized intersections V2X-enabled. The department wants V2X in use on half the nation’s highway system by 2031, and fully deployed by 2036. 

While the plan is not binding or mandatory, the administration is calling on more state and local governments to update their transportation plans and investment strategies to include V2X technology. It is also encouraging automakers and transit and freight operators to deploy the technology.

To get there, the agency said it would provide seed funding and investment to accelerate V2X deployments, help share best practices and lessons learned to realize cost savings and efficiencies, and provide support in areas like standards, architecture and testing to encourage V2X systems to be interoperable.

In June, the department awarded nearly $60 million in grants to Arizona, Texas and Utah to deploy V2X technology, which officials said could be crucial in reducing the more than 40,000 road deaths, of which 7,000 are pedestrian deaths.

“For those of us who have been engaged, this plan today represents just a wonderful fresh start for us to say, ‘Here is our roadmap to actually using technology,’” Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, said during a press briefing. “I believe that technology is the key for us to making sure that we are able to use all of the elements within the [National Roadway Safety Strategy] to achieve that goal of zero deaths on American roadways.”

V2X has been on transportation leaders’ agenda for many years. Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said a federal investigation after a 1995 crash in Menifee, Arkansas, identified the need for collision warning technology. That investigation of a multi-vehicle crash in fog concluded that collision warning technology could potentially reduce or avoid collisions in low-visibility conditions like fog, snow, rain or darkness, and collisions involving drivers who are fatigued or distracted.

Subsequent investigations into crashes in Chesterfield, New Jersey, and Rochester, Indiana, came to similar conclusions. Homendy urged USDOT to take a “leadership role” on the technology.

“We cannot wait any longer, especially because each of those deaths was preventable, especially because V2X can help reverse the devastating public health crisis on our nation's roads, save lives—whether a person is driving, walking, biking or rolling—and fundamentally transform our nation's transportation landscape,” Homendy said. “That is a future worth fighting for.”

Daniel Langenkamp, whose wife Sarah was killed in August 2022 when a truck driver struck her while she was riding her bike in a designated bike lane in Bethesda, Maryland, said V2X technology can make a difference and help bring down road deaths.

“Sarah’s death is emblematic of the crisis, the disaster that we’re seeing on our roads today,” he said. “Dangers are here, everywhere, and they persist even though we know how to eliminate them.”

Deployments are already well underway, including in the states that recently received federal grants. Catherine McGhee, the Virginia Department of Transportation’s chief deputy commissioner, said the Commonwealth has “jumped in with both feet” on V2X and collaborated with automakers and academia to better understand and utilize the technology.

The state is looking into, among other uses, wearable technology for contractors in work zones in a bid to prevent worker deaths in road construction areas. Having the weight of the federal government behind them should be helpful, McGhee said.

“We've learned a lot, but we've never been able to get enough momentum to get beyond those pilots and demonstrations,” she said. “With this plan and the support you see here today, I truly believe that's going to change.”

There’s still a lot to do before the roadmap can become reality. Most notably, the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote soon on rules governing the use of V2X technology on a 5.9 GHz spectrum band.

Robert Hampshire, the agency’s principal deputy assistant secretary for research and technology and chief science officer, said the Department of Transportation has had a “great collaboration” with the FCC over using the band for intelligent transportation over the past few years and wants the rules “passed soon.” An FCC spokesperson declined to comment on when a vote could be scheduled.

States also must wrestle with their limited budgets as they try to deploy V2X technology. McGhee said legislators are always looking for more data and information on the benefits of V2X, and it is incumbent on transportation experts to provide that context.

“Taking the next step to full deployment will require funding, and I challenge you to find a state DOT anywhere in this country that has extra money laying around,” McGhee said. “So that means we need to be able to tell a compelling story about the benefits of V2X.”