The head of the NHTSA, David Strickland, mentioned that the agency will make a decision in 2013 whether to begin making rules governing ‘Connected Vehicle’ technology. Speaking at the Automotive Megatrends USA 2012 conference in Dearborn, Strickland said, “We have been working on this notion for over a decade. It’s time to go fishing. We’re done cutting bait. We will make an agency decision in 2013.” The emerging technology that allows vehicles to send signals to one another (V2V) or roadside infrastructure (V2I) is currently undergoing testing by the USDOT.
Strickland said the NHTSA is finishing pilot studies to provide enough data to decide whether the government should mandate communication technology in cars. He commented that connected vehicle technology is the agency’s next major step to reduce traffic fatalities, with the new technology having the potential to avoid up to 80% of crash scenarios. In 2010, there were 33,000 traffic fatalities in the US; a 25% reduction since 2006. However, Strickland did not address the cost of developing and paying for infrastructure, such as the sensors and wireless transmitters that would need to be deployed at intersections, fitted to traffic signs or embedded in roads.
