Hearing of the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications and Connected Roadways of the Future

Hearing

Today's hearing is a welcome opportunity to learn more about vehicle-to-vehicle, or
V2V, communications -- a technology with great potential to improve safety on our highways
and roads.

Despite the enormous progress we've made over the past several decades in installing air
bags, seat belts, and other crash-resilient measures in our vehicles, fatalities from car crashes still
number in the tens of thousands each year, and preventable injuries number in the millions. We
can, and must, do more to ensure the safety of our driving population. One way to do this is
through crash avoidance technologies such as V2V communications.

Over the past decade and a half, government, industry, and the research community have
worked together to help make so-called "connected cars" a reality. This cooperative effort has
produced a system that allows cars to communicate with each other over a wireless network and
a host of on-board features designed to provide warnings to drivers about potentially dangerous
situations detected through those vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

For example, a V2V system can warn a driver approaching an intersection if another
vehicle is about to run through a stop sign, thereby avoiding a potential collision. V2V systems
have also been tested to help drivers brake suddenly, avoid blind spot collisions, and safely
change lanes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that this
technology has the potential to reduce unimpaired vehicle crashes by 80 percent.

While the progress and potential of this technology are clear, we in Congress must
continue to ensure proper oversight as NHTSA moves aggressively toward its goal of finalizing
its V2V rulemaking by the end of this year. While pushing for V2V-enabled cars, NHTSA must
also ensure drivers have the most beneficial crash avoidance and crashworthiness technologies in
all cars, not just those supported by V2V communications. Vehicle-to-vehicle communications
is just one component of an overall strategy to make our highways and roads a safe place to
drive.

Ensuring privacy and security should also a top priority for Congress. Safe vehicles must
be resilient against hacking attempts and must ensure the anonymity of drivers' data. Consumer
groups and the Federal Trade Commission provided NHTSA with comments on how to ensure
consumer privacy and security in its rulemaking proceeding, and my hope is that the agency
addresses these concerns moving forward.

The availability of spectrum is another important component of our discussion of V2V
implementation. Congress has heard repeatedly from stakeholders in the intelligent
transportation community as well as the unlicensed community about their legitimate concerns
regarding sharing spectrum in the upper 5 GHz band. I am confident both sides can work
together to resolve their difference so consumers see a two-fold benefit -- V2V communications
that improve vehicle safety, and an expansion of Wi-Fi networks that broaden access to the
Internet. This Committee recently initiated a series of bipartisan meetings to facilitate a sharing
solution among all stakeholders in this area, and I look forward to continuing this worthwhile
effort.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for convening this hearing, and thank you to the witnesses for
your testimony. As Transportation Secretary Foxx stated last month, our goal should be moving
toward an era when vehicle safety isn't just about surviving crashes; it's about avoiding them.

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