Cars in the US might soon be mandated to broadcast speed and location data
Published time: August 27, 2014 19:23
The United States Department
of Transportation is taking the next step towards creating a
“vehicle-to-vehicle” communications system that will allow light autos on the
road to receive and broadcast critical information to one another.
Last week, the DOT’s
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, published an“advance
notice of proposed rulemaking” in the Federal Register announcing the
department’s intention to move forward with plans that officials believe could
save thousands of lives.
“By warning drivers of
imminent danger, V2V technology has the potential to dramatically improve
highway safety,” David Friedman, NHSTA’s deputy administrator, said in a
statement announcing the rulemaking, according to FedScoop. “V2V technology is
ready to move toward implementation and this report highlights the work NHTSA
and DOT are doing to bring this technology and its great safety benefits into
the nation’s light vehicle fleet.”
Earlier this year, US
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said that V2V technology “represents the
next generation of auto safety improvements,” and is an appropriate next step
after safety belts and air bags.
"By helping drivers
avoid crashes, this technology will play a key role in improving the way people
get where they need to go while ensuring that the US remains the leader in the
global automotive industry,” Foxx said in February.
Now after months of
research, the NHTSA says they’ve completed “a very preliminary estimate of the
costs of V2V and the benefits,” and are hoping to receive more comments in
order to develop an effective proposal to be submitted at a later time
advocating for the mandatory use of the technology.
According to a technical
report released by the NTSA, the V2V system would make the roads safer by
creating “highly accurate information” using in-vehicle data that is then sent
to other cars as a “Basic Safety Message.”
"In addition, it can
process the content of received messages to provide advisories and/or warnings
to the driver of the vehicle in which it is installed,” the report reads.
Since the details that would
be delivered contain vehicle-specific information, however, privacy advocates
may soon object to the plans, as they’d put data like speed and direction in
the hands of other drivers, including perhaps police cars..
"For example,"
part of the technical report reads, "when a DSRC unit sends out a BSM, the
BSM needs to: Contain the relevant elements and describe them accurately (e.g.,
vehicle speed; GPS position; vehicle heading; DSRC message ID, etc.).”
“What NHTSA envisions
mandating will not control people's cars but create a uniform communication
system built into all vehicles that will give automobile manufacturers the
opportunity to equip their products with warning systems that alert drivers to
potential accidents — such as one that might be caused by cross traffic at a
blind intersection,” opined CNS News reporter Terence P. Jeffrey.
According to the NTSA,
installing V2V transmitted in automobiles could cost only $350 by 2020, and the
system could save thousands of lives by alerting drivers of up-to-the-second
actions of other people on the road, like those who may be running red lights
or driving at dangerous speeds.
That type of data collection
wouldn’t be anything new for some cars, however, with RT having reported
previously that 96 percent of the cars mass-produced during the last year were
manufactured with small “black box” surveillance devices that log immense
details every time an engine is turned on.
“There’s not so much privacy
concerns as actual threats to privacy,” Khaliah Barnes of the Electronic
Privacy Information Center told CBS News last year. “These machines collect lots
of data, and right now there are no federal laws that safeguard this
information. And so what happens is there is an increasing market for this
information. Law enforcement wants to see this information. Insurance
companies, as well as private citizens involved in litigation.”
Even auto execs have
acknowledged as much, with one Ford senior executive having to apologizeearlier
this year after boasting at an industry trade show: “We have GPS in your car,
so we know what you're doing.”
“Safety is our top priority,
and V2V technology represents the next great advance in saving lives,”added
Transportation Sec. Foxx. “This technology could move us from helping people
survive crashes to helping them avoid crashes altogether.”
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