National Highway Traffic Safety Administration August 20, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document initiates rulemaking that would propose to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS), FMVSS No. 150, to require vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capability for light vehicles (passenger cars and light truck vehicles (LTVs)) and to create minimum performance requirements for V2V devices and messages. The agency believes that requiring V2V communication capability in new light vehicles would facilitate the development and introduction of a number of advanced vehicle safety applications. Some crash warning V2V applications, like Intersection Movement Assist (IMA) and Left Turn Assist (LTA), rely on V2V-based messages to obtain information to detect and then warn drivers of possible safety risks in situations where other technologies have less capability. Both of those applications address intersection crashes, which are among the most deadly crashes that U.S. drivers currently face. NHTSA believes that V2V capability will not develop absent regulation, because there would not be any immediate safety benefits for consumers who are early adopters of V2V. V2V begins to provide safety benefits only if a significant number of vehicles in the fleet are equipped with it and if there is a means to ensure secure and reliable communication between vehicles. NHTSA believes that no single manufacturer would have the incentive to build vehicles able to ``talk'' to other vehicles, if there are no other vehicles to talk toleading to likely market failure without the creation of a mandate to induce collective action. Through this ANPRM, and through the accompanying technical report, ``Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications: Readiness of V2V Technology for Application,'' NHTSA presents the results of its initial research efforts. In this report, NHTSA has done a very preliminary estimate of the costs of V2V and the benefits for two V2V-based safety applications, IMA and LTA, for addressing intersection crashes and left-turning crashes, respectively. The report also explores technical, legal, security, and privacy issues related to the implementation of V2V. NHTSA seeks comment on the research report, and solicits additional information, data, and analysis that will aid the agency in developing an effective proposal to require new light vehicles to be V2V-capable. By mandating V2V technology in all new vehicles, but not requiring specific safety applications, it is NHTSA's belief that such capability will in turn facilitate market-driven development and introduction of a variety of safety applications, as well as mobility and environment-related applications that can potentially save drivers both time and fuel.