ITS America Launches Task Force to Advance Connected Vehicle Communications

As part of its continuing efforts to expand connected vehicle communications, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America has announced a Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Task Force to address a national interoperability standard that enables any vehicle to communicate with any other vehicle and with all other users of the transportation system.

TheV2X Task Force will look at new technologies and their impact on transportation safety, security and interoperability. V2X enables a vehicle to connect to any other vehicle (e.g. cars, buses, trucks), any other road user (e.g. pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists) or any roadside traffic system (e.g. traffic management systems). John Kenney, Director of Networking Research, Toyota InfoTechnology Center, USA, and Amy Ford, Chief of Advanced Mobility, Colorado Department of Transportation, are the task force co-chairs.

“The sooner we have more connected vehicles on the roads, the sooner we can save more lives and improve mobility,” said Shailen Bhatt, president and CEO of ITS America. “Toyota’s announcement last week that it will deploy V2X Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) systems (in Toyota and Lexus vehicles) starting in 2021, along with GM’s commitment to V2X DSRC in the 2017 interim model year, was a major step forward. New technologies continue to change the transportation landscape, and we hope the task force will build the momentum needed to expand deployment of this lifesaving technology.”

With direction from its members over the last decade, ITS America facilitated the development of standards to create the current V2X ecosystem, focusing on interoperability, safety, security, and privacy. 

Many of ITS America’s members have introduced or are developing V2X technology based upon standards that ITS America helped establish within the Federal Communications Commission. ITS America has long advocated for a common nationwide standard for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications (V2I is currently deployed in 26 states), understanding that interoperability will drive innovation. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that V2V can potentially address approximately 80% of crashes involving two or more motor vehicles.