ANN ARBOR – Leaders of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute and Mobility Transformation Center support the U.S. Department of Transportation’s proposed rule announced Tuesday that would mandate vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology on all new light-duty vehicles.
The technology would enable a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that could prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes every year by helping vehicles “talk” to each other.
“This announcement is consistent with our plans to expand and accelerate our ongoing deployments of connected vehicles in the city of Ann Arbor, and throughout southeast Michigan,” said Jim Sayer, director U-M Transportation Research Institute. “Connected vehicle research conducted at the U-M indicates a reduction in unimpaired vehicle crashes by up to 80 percent. This technology will dramatically reduce fatalities and injuries.”
“The proposed rule is critical because, once finalized, it will allow us to move forward after a long period of development on a technology that has the potential to improve safety and dramatically reduce traffic deaths, which topped 35,000 in 2015,” said Huei Peng, director of the U-M Mobility Transformation Center, a public-private partnership committed to advancing connected and automated vehicles. “And specifying the use of Dedicated Short-Range Communications, or DSRC, is a strong push for the industry to move forward in the same direction.”
