Federal Plan Outlines Deployment of ‘Vehicle-to-Everything’ Tech

The U.S. Department of Transportation is releasing a plan for the deployment of technology that allows cars to ‘talk’ to each other, potentially preventing thousands of crashes.

As Joel Rose explains in a piece for NPR, the tech, known as vehicle-to-everything, allows vehicles to exchange information with other vehicles and sensors including roadway infrastructure. “Users could send and receive frequent messages to and from each other, continuously sharing information about speed, position, and road conditions — even in situations with poor visibility, including around corners or in dense fog or heavy rain.”

While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was poised to mandate the technology during the Obama administration, the proposal was later dropped. The new plan could reduce the “regulatory uncertainty” that has hindered the deployment of V2X. “In the short-term, the plan aims to have V2X infrastructure in place on 20% of the National Highway System by 2028, and for 25% of the nation's largest metro areas to have V2X enabled at signalized intersections.”