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Toyota Hits The Brakes On Plan To Install DSRC Technology On U.S. Vehicles

Toyota’s plans for a network that would allow vehicles to communicate with each other to avoid collisions has hit a roadblock.

The company said on Friday it was halting plans to install Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) technology on U.S. vehicles beginning in 2021.

Automakers have been divided in the United States over whether to proceed with the DSRC system or use a 4G- or 5G-based system.

Toyota announced plans in April 2018 to begin the installation of DSRC technology in 2021 ‘with the goal of adoption across most of its lineup by the mid-2020s.’

Automakers were allocated a section of spectrum for DSRC in the 5.9 GHz band in 1999 but it has essentially gone unused.  

Some Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and cable company officials want to reallocate the spectrum for WiFi and other uses. Testing has gone on for years to see if the spectrum band can be shared.

Toyota said the decision announced Friday was based on ‘a range of factors, including the need for greater automotive industry commitment as well as federal government support to preserve the 5.9 GHz spectrum band for DSRC.’

The Japanese automaker added that it would ‘continue to re-evaluate the deployment environment’ and but said it is still a strong backer of DSRC ‘because we believe it is the only proven and available technology for collision avoidance communication.’

DSRC transmissions enable vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications and broadcast precise vehicle information up to 10 times per second, including location, speed and acceleration.

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General Motors Co backs DSRC and has installed the technology on a small number of Cadillac CTS sedans it has sold since 2017.

In December 2016, the U.S. Department of Transportation proposed to mandate DSRC in all new vehicles. The Trump administration has not acted on the proposal.

Last year, the acting head of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Heidi King, said the agency’s ‘past research has centered around DSRC – because that was the only technology available.’

She added that NHTSA was ‘exploring other technologies’ including cellular-based services that Ford Motor Co was pursuing, however.

Ford said in January it planned to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology, or C-V2X , in all new U.S. vehicle models beginning in 2022.

Last year, FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Toyota urging them to examine ‘potential opportunities to advance automotive safety using newer technology, such as C-V2X systems’ when ‘committing capital expenditures to DSRC technology.’

NHTSA has estimated that connected vehicles technologies could eliminate or reduce the severity of up to 80 percent of crashes not involving impaired drivers.

The U.S. Transportation Department plans a meeting on Monday with automakers and state transportation officials about connected vehicle efforts and use of the 5.9 GHz spectrum, officials said Friday.

WHAT ARE CARS MONITORING ON THE ROAD AND ABOUT DRIVERS?

Radar, lasers and cameras are making their way inside cars with the intention to keep occupants safe and make controlling the vehicle even easier than normal.

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A plethora of firms are employing millimetre-wave radar which has such a small wavelength it can take highly detailed measurements.

US-based firm Texas Instruments uses a mounted device to identify people in the car and classify them as a woman or a man.

It is also able to spot the presence of pets and, with enough developments in computing ability, it would be able to detect bodily functions such as respiration.

Start-up Caareys has built two systems that utilise radar, with one performing analysis of heart rate, breath rate and driver health condition while its other project counts the number of passengers and positioning of them.

Biometrics and the information this provides is also being integrated into cars.

British firm B-Secur is working on technology that will place medical-grade sensors inside a car’s steering wheel to monitor a person’s unique cardiac rhythm.

BMW unveiled gaze recognition technology at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year that will let drivers control the inside of the car using only their eyes.

A high-definition camera mounted in the dashboard will track a customer’s head and eyes to precisely identify what they are looking at – either inside or outside the car.

BMW claims drivers will be able to look outside the car windscreen at a restaurant they are passing and learn its menu, opening hours and even book a table.

Source: Dailymail

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