Self-driving car technology, forgotten by automakers, is still alive at the federal agency

for article titled

It was time for the answer. How to build self-driving cars It was to design a single technology that would allow every vehicle on the road to communicate with everything. – Other cars, infrastructure units, signs, police alarms, They named it. You don’t hear much about vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications anymore, but the feds are alive to a similar concept: cellular vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

I want to answer you first In the year Until 1999. Backstreet Boys released their mega-single “I Want That,” And through Star Wars, he returned to a generation The Phantom Menace. It’s also the year the Federal Communications Commission approves the 5.9 GHz band specifically for cars to talk to each other and the world.

You may remember hearing about this a lot over the last couple of decades, but not so much in the last few years. Lidar and cameras dominate the emerging self-driving technology, but V2V It was once considered crucial. To make the leap to a fully self-driving experience.

In the year In 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a Notice of proposed regulation All vehicles to be equipped with short range communication system dedicated to V2X communication. DSRC allows vehicles to communicate with each other and between traffic bodies up to 300 meters away in that dedicated 5.9 GHz bandwidth.

But after years of holding the group together for automakers and no movement toward an industry-wide system, the FCC It decided to hand over some of that bandwidth to Wi-Fi instead. Ars Technica Reports. He didn’t sign the entire band. even if. The National Transportation Safety Board is pushing the FCC to begin testing the new C-V2X technology in a letter sent Monday. C-V2X allows vehicles to communicate via mobile radio protocols. Instead of a certain short-range radio signal:

This disappointed NTBS, which wrote to the FCC as part of the commission’s public comment period to consider a freeze requested by automakers to deploy C-V2X technology. Conceptually, C-V2X works like the old V2X—direct vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. But using cellular radio protocols rather than a dedicated short-range radio communication protocol.

The FCC should grant this waiver, NTB said in the letter, which has recommended that the nation adopt wireless collision avoidance technology since 1995. Connected vehicle technology, it says, will reduce the carnage on America’s roads. The NTSB, and the agency, urged the FCC to ensure that Wi-Fi devices do not infringe on the remaining 30 MHz of Intelligent Transportation System frequencies.

“30 MHz is enough for basic security features,” said Balazs Tott-Pinter, a communications specialist at V2X company Commissia, noting that the EU has allocated a total of 40 MHz for V2X alone. And unlike the US, deployment is happening in Europe. “This year, we will see around 1 million V2X cars in Europe. The expected penetration will be in the 10 million-ish range by 2024–2025,” he told Ars.

Toth-Pinter said the court’s ruling only added clarity to the field and that Commsignia “has been working on that 30 MHz since the FCC made its decision two years ago.” We offer equipment that includes both DSRC and C-V2X, so changing the physical network layer is not a big deal. He said, “We can move forward at the speed of deployment now.”

Besides keeping General Motors, it’s clear why vehicle-to-everything technology hasn’t caught on in America. DSRCs in 2017 Cadillac CTS sedans and a small stretch outside of Detroit for freeway testing. To successfully implement V2X or C-V2X, we need a huge investment in infrastructure and a whole new set of standards and regulations. Automobile industry in various markets, Both in America and abroad. It requires new software and sensor-building industries to compete for contracts and federal funds to be distributed and distributed to each state.

Meanwhile, for the past four years Trump administration NHTSA did nothing And of course he wasn’t ready to fight automobiles for the rules and regulations of the new technological frontier.

Automakers didn’t expect the feds to get together; They have pushed the technology forward by using lidar, cameras, sensors and other elements in every car. In doing so, automakers have changed the drivers who share the road with their products. To the unknown beta testers And put them in predictable technologies Products and customers firstIt is completely inconsistent with the goal of building safe cities for all. And in the last six years, insufficient action has made our roads less safe than ever. In the year In 2016, when V2X technology was a good technology to bet on, for example, 37,000 Americans died in traffic accidents. In 2021, This number was 43,000.

NTBB’s plea appears to be an attempt to preserve the dream of safer streets using better technology. These people should really think about what the world would be like Self-driving cars will never happen. Of course we don’t need V2X or C-V2X to make our roads safer, but the Solutions to reduce road deaths It hits Americans like a problem.