Vehicle-to-Vehicle Planning 'Assumes no Interference' in Upper 5 GHz, NHTSA Official Says
Members of the House Commerce Trade Subcommittee pressed several officials on the virtues of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) crash avoidance technology and its challenges, pinpointing spectrum availability and cybersecurity as predominant future concerns.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“Ensuring that V2V is done right is a committee-wide priority, and I want to acknowledge the important meetings ... to address the question of whether and how Intelligent Transportation Systems can co-exist with unlicensed uses,” Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in his opening statement. “Our O&I [Oversight & Investigations] subcommittee has taken the lead in sending out letters to ensure that cybersecurity is front and center in everyone’s minds as we move forward.”
“The availability of spectrum is another important component of our discussion of V2V implementation,” committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said in his opening statement. “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[s] 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.”
The planning for connected vehicles “assumes there is no interference in that spectrum band,” said Nat Beuse, associate administrator-vehicle safety research for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “If for some reason the message is delayed or not even received at all, and that leads to a crash, that’s not going to be a good situation for anybody. One of the things we're looking at is how much interference in that band can you tolerate.” Beuse said in his written testimony: “Given the interest in determining whether the 5.9 GHz spectrum reserved for V2V communications can be shared with unlicensed users, the Department is committed to completing a preliminary test plan within 12 months after industry makes production-ready devices available for testing.”
Reps. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., and subcommittee ranking member Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., pressed officials on cybersecurity. “I am very concerned” about the security challenges, Brooks said. “Did the safety pilot test the security?” Peter Sweatman, director of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute and one of the people involved in a vehicle-to-vehicle pilot, told her officials used the prototype security system developed by the Department of Transportation during the pilot. “We take cybersecurity very seriously,” said Harry Lightsey, General Motors' executive director-global connected customer experience, saying General Motors’ staff is tasked with examining “end-to-end” protections. “We try to stay abreast of it as best we can. We have a lot of resources devoted to that.”
“Safe vehicles must be resilient against hacking attempts and must ensure the anonymity of drivers’ data,” Pallone said. “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.”
Schakowsky inquired about the role of the NHTSA. Beuse outlined various steps, such as advocating for an Information Security Analysis Center and examining “counter measures” to “harden” vehicles and integrate “layers of protection.” Government officials are trying to ensure “people are using the latest and greatest in terms of protection,” he said. The current thinking favors a “best practices approach” rather than rulemaking given the time required in any federal rulemaking, Beuse said, saying the administration is modeling its approach off of other agencies.
GM’s Lightsey predicts vehicle-to-vehicle tech may become common quite quickly in the years ahead. “I was at AT&T in 2007 when we rolled out the iPhone,” back when no one envisioned how quick and pervasive it would become, he said.