In those eight years, there has been a lot of talk and not a lot of action.
V2X has a number of elements. In its basic form, it’s V2V – vehicle to vehicle. This is attractive because it doesn’t need an infrastructure; if other cars are within range, they can ‘talk’ to each other. But it’s the V2I – vehicle to infrastructure – element that has provided the biggest headaches, including who is going to build the network, what technologies will be used and so on.
In many instances, developers have said deployment of V2X is being held back by business, rather than technology, issues. But the move this week by the US Department of Transportation to mandate the use of V2V in light duty vehicles could provide the impetus that has, so far, been missing. We’ve seen before that legislation can help to concentrate minds.
If car makers have to include V2V technology in their future models, the industry can get on with developing the systems. But it needs a standard. The IEEE has developed 802.11p with this in mind, but this part of the spectrum is, apparently, being eyed by those who want to use it for wireless broadband.
Once V2V is underway, it would also provide some momentum to efforts to build a V2I network. But, you have the feeling that, until V2I is fully rolled out, autonomous vehicles will be somewhat limited in their abilities.
