Skip to main content

NTSB urges standards for connected vehicles

In response to fatal school bus accidents at intersections in New Jersey and Florida last year, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended that the government should set performance standards for new safety technology that allows cars and trucks to talk to each other and then require the technology be installed in all new vehicles. Vehicles equipped with the technology can continuously communicate over wireless networks, exchanging information on location, direction and speed ten tim
July 24, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In response to fatal school bus accidents at intersections in New Jersey and Florida last year, the US 5628 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended that the government should set performance standards for new safety technology that allows cars and trucks to talk to each other and then require the technology be installed in all new vehicles.

Vehicles equipped with the technology can continuously communicate over wireless networks, exchanging information on location, direction and speed ten times a second. The vehicle's computer analyses the information and issues danger warnings to drivers, often before they can see the other vehicle.

The 834 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been road-testing the technology, which is effective up to a range of about 1,000 feet, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the past year. NHTSA officials have said they hope to make a decision on whether to proceed to setting standards or whether to continue their research by the end of this year.

"This technology more than anything else holds great promise to protect lives and prevent injuries," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said. That was particularly true of crashes at intersections like the two school bus accidents, she added.

Related Content

  • US road safety continues to improve
    February 7, 2012
    Road safety continues to improve according to the latest figures from the US Department of Transportation. The recorded data shows that in 2009 the US had the lowest level of traffic fatalities since 1954.
  • Preparing for unpredictable precipitation
    August 18, 2015
    ITS solutions are helping streamline winter road maintenance for Delaware and Illinois, two states that must deal with dynamic weather and varying snowfall totals. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Wilmington and Newark (pronounced new-ark) are two vastly different cities that sit on opposite ends of Delaware. Newark is a sleepy university town of roughly 30,000 residents abutting the state’s western border with Maryland and Pennsylvania, and often gets confused with its larger namesake in New Jersey.
  • Wider uses for weigh in motion data
    March 18, 2014
    Colin Sowman talks to Terry Bergan of International Road Dynamics about the latest uses of weigh-in-motion systems. Raising allowable truck weight limits improve transport efficiency but leaves an ever-increasing number of bridges vulnerable to being overloaded and damaged by vehicles heavier, and in some cases far heavier, than they were designed to carry. The simplistic solution is to impose weight restrictions and erect appropriate signs - but this could have severe knock-on effect on trucking operations
  • No in-road equipment for Queensland's free flow toll bridge
    February 1, 2012
    By May this year, the new Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, which is being built alongside an existing bridge, will be open. With it will come an end-to-end free-flow tolling system. Interview with Sue Caelers, Queensland Motorway Ltd. Queensland Motorways Ltd owns and operates 61km of roadway in the area around Brisbane, Australia. This includes the Gateway Bridge and the Gateway Extension, Logan and Port of Brisbane motorways.