The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be making a decision this year about whether to initiate a rulemaking requiring some degree of digital connectivity in new cars.
Any action will be based on the lessons the department learned in its Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Model Deployment in Ann Arbor, Mich. The pilot model has been going on for a few years. The idea is to provide next-generation safety features that carry vehicles out of the "protecting drivers from a crash" era that opened with NHTSA's creation in 1970 to a new era where crashes are prevented.
In May, David Strickland, the NHTSA Administrator, told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that any NHTSA requirements that new cars come with advanced technology such as lane departure warnings would not bring immediate benefits to drivers. "It will take some time for the vehicle fleet to turn over," he said. In an effort to bring the benefits of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) safety systems more quickly to drivers his agency might mandate the use of what he referred to as "aftermarket beacons."
He didn't actually use the word "mandate." Rather, he said, "The other part we are looking at is the provision of aftermarket beacons so the people can actually put their beacons in their cars and get benefits immediately." Strickland did not specify the kinds of beacons he was referring to. But a NHTSA spokesman, when asked for details, forwarded a NHTSA brochure that talks about "'simple' communications beacons that are brought into the vehicle. All systems and devices emit a basic safety message 10 times per second that forms the data stream that other in-vehicle devices use to determine when a potential traffic hazard exists."
It is not clear how NHTSA could influence aftermarket requirements, or whether it has the authority to do so. But beacons and other aftermarket technology are being tested in Ann Arbor.
"Attractive aftermarket devices, developed with the active support of the automotive manufacturers, are needed to expand access to safety and mobility benefits and increase the density of deployment of the platform," said Peter Sweatman, director, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). "These devices will need to have the active support of automakers. Further field testing of aftermarket devices will also be needed."
The Ann Arbor program just received a $14.9-million contract from NHTSA for a 30-month program that will establish a real world, multimodal test site in Ann Arbor for enabling wireless communications among vehicles and roadside equipment for use in generating data to enable safety applications. Passenger cars, commercial trucks, and transit buses will be included that are equipped with a mix of integrated, retrofit, and aftermarket V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)-based safety systems, a technology that could prevent thousands of crashes.
The data generated and archived as part of the model deployment will be used for estimating safety benefits in support of future decisions by NHTSA, as well as for use by the broader transportation industry in developing additional safety, mobility and environmental applications utilizing wireless technologies. The testing phase will last 12 months, and include approximately 2,850 vehicles.
Partners in supporting UMTRI include the Michigan Department of Transportation, the city of Ann Arbor, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Mixon Hill, HNTB Corp., Science Applications International Corp., Texas Transportation Institute, AAA of Michigan, and ESCRYPT. The Office of the Vice President of Research at the University of Michigan and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. are providing additional support.
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