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

  • Front crash prevention slashes police-reported rear-end crashes, says IIHS
    January 29, 2016
    Vehicles equipped with front crash prevention are much less likely to rear-end other vehicles, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has found in the first study of the feature's effectiveness using US police-reported crash data. The study found that systems with automatic braking reduce rear-end crashes by about 40 per cent on average, while forward collision warning alone cuts them by 23 per cent. The automatic braking systems also greatly reduce injury crashes.
  • In-vehicle automation of safety compliance and other traffic violations
    January 24, 2012
    David Crawford explores new initiatives in enforcement. Achieving the EU’s new road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 depends on removing legal and institutional barriers to the deployment of new enforcement technologies, stresses Jan Malenstein. The senior ITS Adviser to Dutch National Police Agency the KLPD, and a European-level spokesperson on road and traffic safety, points to the importance of, among other requirements, an effective EUwide type approval process for fr
  • Cooperative road infrastructures - progress and the future
    February 1, 2012
    Robert Bertini, deputy administrator of the USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, discusses the research and deployment paths of cooperative road infrastructures. High-level analysis by the US's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the potential of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure/Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (V2I/I2V) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technologies indicates that V2V could in exclusivity address a large proportion of crashes involving unimpaired drivers. In fact,
  • Connected vehicle data promises advanced weather warning
    August 29, 2012
    Connected vehicle research and development is being aimed at improving driver safety and mobility, but is also promising advanced weather monitoring and warning systems. Sheldon Drobot reports. Over the last few years, the United States’ Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Research & Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) have joined forces to promote safety, mobility and the environment through a new connected vehicle initiative. This aims to enable wireless communication between vehicles, infra