Short: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA), there were 40,000 traffic fatalities last year. The U.S. Department of Transportation hopes to reduce that number to zero with a comprehensive technology framework called V2X, an ambitious plan that will improve infrastructure, vehicle technology and regulation to make our road trips as safe as possible.

Automakers and regulators have been implementing safety features for decades, including blind-spot detection and lane-keeping assist, which alert the driver with flashing lights and audible beeps. There’s also the automatic emergency braking system, which uses cameras and computer analysis to detect a potential collision and automatically brake if the driver doesn’t react quickly enough. Adaptive cruise control systems, such as Chevrolet’s Super Cruise, allow the vehicle to maintain speed and distance and pass hands-free, but driver attention is mandatory.

The rollout of these safety features has been slow and fragmented, with each automaker offering different features depending on the vehicle’s equipment. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has released its plan to solve this problem, with the goal of reducing traffic fatalities to zero: the nationwide rollout of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X).

V2X uses wireless communication technology (5.895 – 5.925 GHz) to allow vehicles to share information directly with each other or with data centers to increase driving safety. It sounds like quorum sensing, the cell-to-cell communication process that bacteria use to detect and respond to environmental and population changes.

Another aspect of the V2X vision is interoperability, which will standardize data communication and security across the entire technology stack.

The V2X plan covers several important areas:

• Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) shares information such as position and speed between vehicles to avoid collisions.
• Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) enables the interpretation of traffic signals and signs to improve traffic flow.
• Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) alerts pedestrians and cyclists to potential dangers.
• Vehicle-to-Network (V2N) enables vehicles to connect to data centers and cellular networks to receive real-time updates on traffic and road conditions.

V2X is part of the National Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Reference Architecture, a framework for planning, defining and integrating technology into transportation systems. This framework ensures that V2X remains adaptable as newer technologies become available.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s commitment to cybersecurity with V2X is good news, especially in light of revelations this year that GM sells driver data. V2X is secure by design; a Security Credential Management System (SCMS) will authenticate and digitally sign messages to establish trust between the certified components. And while automakers will have access to some of the data, the focus on protecting personally identifiable information (PII) for its intended purpose should prevent inappropriate use.

The DOT has laid out a plan to implement V2X in four main areas: infrastructure deployment, vehicles, spectrum and interoperability, benefits, and technical support. The goals are divided into phases: short-term between 2024 and 2028, medium-term between 2029 and 2031, and long-term (significant adoption) between 2032 and 2036. Automakers are not required to adopt V2X, but the DOT hopes its multi-layered approach of standardization, technical support, regulatory support, and seed capital will encourage rapid adoption.