The Spectrum Crunch

This article describes how the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), in coordination with major automakers and other public and private sector innovators, has been working to advance vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications technology in order to aid in accident prevention before the accident actually occurs. The USDOT estimates the connected vehicle network could potentially address 80% of all crash scenarios that involve non-impaired drivers, which could save thousands of lives each year while also providing significant mobility, environmental and economic benefits. While momentum is building toward connected vehicle implementation, parallel efforts by U.S. policymakers to open more spectrum for Wi-Fi applications threatens to undermine the entire connected vehicle program. The article discusses why the move toward spectrum sharing in the 5.9GHz should not be allowed to proceed until further analysis of the risks to road safety have been undertaken.