What's crazy is there is this cutting
edge and important technology, yet no one
seems to know much about it.
And it could be the next big thing in the automotive safety
industry.
We spend a lot of time at Consumer Reports testing
the latest automotive technology.
Everything from automated driving systems
to the latest in safety technology.
But there's one system that you probably have never heard of,
that both auto manufacturers and regulators
have been really slow to adopt.
But it could start saving lives immediately.
Have you ever heard of V2X?
Let me explain.
It's known as V2X, or vehicle to everything communication.
And it can enable something like a bus, an ambulance,
and even your family car, to communicate with each other.
It can also share information with the city's infrastructure
about road conditions, traffic information, and much,
much more.
V2X can get you where you want to go, on time,
and potentially save someone's life.
And the thing is, this is not a brand new technology that's
just been developed.
A number of places have already implemented
this to help cities run safely and more efficiently.
The perfect example is my hometown
of Salt Lake City, Utah.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The Utah Department of Transportation
is primarily focused on safety.
Safety's important to us.
We have a goal of zero crashes, zero injuries, zero fatalities.
UDOT has been involved with conversations about,
and planning for, connected vehicle infrastructure
for probably 15 years.
In 2014, we felt like there were a number of places
around the country that had started
to experiment with DSRC Radios.
We decided it was time for us to stop just talking about it
and get our hands dirty.
We ended up deploying DSRC on 24 of 30 intersections
on Redwood Road.
Redwood Road is a north south arterial, just west of downtown
Salt Lake.
It's a very long, straight arterial corridor.
We took an 11 mile section and outfitted
24 of those intersections with DSRC radios.
And then we outfitted some UTA buses.
The way this corridor works is, as the bus travels down
the corridor it knows whether it's on schedule or not.
If it's behind schedule by 5 minutes or more,
it then can request priority over the signal.
It sends a message through the DSRC radios
and says to the traffic signal, I'm behind schedule.
Can you adjust your signal timing
to give me green to get me through.
What we've discovered through the analysis
of the data on that system, is that we're
improving the schedule reliability of the buses that
are equipped by 6% during the morning and afternoon peaks.
Getting people where they want to go on time
is definitely important, but we're really focused on safety.
Anyone who's been to Utah in the winter
can attest the snow is no joke and can make very
hazardous driving conditions.
But V2X has proven itself in that case, too.
This past winter, we equipped 47 of our snow
plows that plows those sections of our roadways.
When the plow slows down or stops,
it's obviously not throwing snow effectively.
So keeping it moving is a more effective way
of removing snow and ice from the road.
There is some research out there that
tells us that if you can remove the snow and ice from the road
a little sooner, you can prevent snow and ice related crashes.
And so that's our goal here.
V2X can also help in more serious circumstances.
Imagine, there's two cars equipped with this technology
and they're involved in a crash.
The cars themselves are able to alert authorities immediately.
They won't have to wait for anyone else to call for help.
And for police and fire trucks headed to the scene,
all traffic lights could instantly turn green
without any human intervention.
V2X working in this way could save precious minutes
in an emergency.
V2X could even alert your car to an accident
before you even see it.
And it's not just Salt Lake City.
Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and many more
are rolling out similar technologies.
So after hearing how capable this technology is,
you might be wondering, why isn't it
in the car that's sitting in my driveway?
What are the car manufacturers waiting for?
Well the answer has been playing out for years
and it's the automotive industry equivalent of the VHS,
Betamax format competition back in the '80s.
There are two technologies that can enable V2X.
DSRC, which is Dedicated Short Range Communication.
It's the technology they're using in Salt Lake City.
It acts like a walkie talkie and can
communicate with lots of other radios within a small area.
Then we have cellular, which is analogous to how
your cell phone works.
It can relay messages over much longer distances,
but can only talk to one radio at a time.
So now the auto manufacturers are
stuck between two dueling forms of V2X,
and neither have really gained overwhelming support
in the industry.
And this is why companies are hesitant to implement
either one or the other.
And this is exactly why your car doesn't have this technology.
And there's one other problem.
The cellular technology, we're really
only in the beginning stages of testing its viability.
All the talk about its capabilities at this point
is only theoretical.
V2X using 3G and 4G has begun testing in the real world,
and 5G is still being developed.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We at CR understand that the federal government has
been sending automakers mixed signals,
and it's taken far too long to finish
its research on V2X technology.
But there's a version of V2X that's here now
and we know it works.
There is a real urgency to figuring out
this problem, and fast.
The FCC is planning to take away the spectrum reserved for cars
to talk to one another and give it away
for things like household Wi-Fi, that have nothing
to do with safety.
If we lose this portion of the spectrum,
V2X becomes much less capable as a safety
tool in the foreseeable future.
It'll have limited abilities and most
of the practical applications may be lost.
Systems like the one found in Salt Lake City
would require significant overhaul
to utilize a smaller fraction of the remaining spectrum.
This may ultimately limit the full potential
of the safety technology.
There is also the possibility of manufacturers
charging a fee for your safety.
Imagine having to pay a monthly subscription to keep
your safety gear working.
The prospect of losing V2X technology
is incredibly concerning.
And so CR has been fighting, we've
been pushing the FCC to reserve this spectrum
for transportation safety.
And we've also been pushing automakers
to make sure that they roll out this technology as quickly
as possible.
We want to avoid one manufacturer adopting
a different system than another.
Toyotas need to be able to talk to Toyotas,
but they also need to be able to talk
to all of the other car brands.
In fact, the auto industry has pledged
to install 5 million pieces of V2X equipment
on vehicles and roadway infrastructure
over the next five years.
But only if the FCC preserves the spectrum.
If you want to take action to help stop the FCC from giving
away the airwaves necessary for V2X,
contact your members of Congress, your representative,
and your two senators.
Tell them to urge the president and his staff
to let this plan go no further.
They're the ones in the best position
to put a stop to this at this point.
V2X has the potential to make our roads safer
and save countless lives, and the time to act is now.
[MUSIC PLAYING]