Toyota Motor Corp. is concerned that expanding Wi-Fi services could interfere with future auto safety technology and believes more testing is needed to ensure no such problems arise.
Principal research manager John Kenney of the Toyota Info Technology Center in California told a U.S. House Energy and Commerce panel overseeing technology that the Federal Communications Commission should not move forward with plans to open expanded parts of the wireless spectrum to Internet access until viable technology-sharing is demonstrated and “if it can be proven that no harmful interference will impair the safety-of-life mission for which that spectrum is allocated,” The Detroit News reported.
“We don’t want a mom driving a car down the road with kids in the back seat, and because she happens to be driving by a coffee shop that’s using Wi-Fi, her collision-avoidance system turns off,” Kenney said, adding that regulations should also ensure personal electronics inside the car do not pose a threat to the vehicle’s safety system.
Designed to improve road safety, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) networks would enable vehicles to communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure to share certain information such as location, vehicle speed, traffic flow and road conditions. Analyses by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate the technology could one day help prevent approximately 80 percent of traffic accidents involving non-impaired drivers.
Since August 2012, several major automakers and technology companies have been working in a one-year “smart vehicle” pilot study with NHTSA’s Connected Vehicle Research Program to evaluate and test connected-vehicle technologies. The program was extended for an additional six months earlier this year.
Toyota warned the committee that the U.S. could fall behind Europe in development of connected-car networks. European automakers announced plans last year to deploy vehicle-to-vehicle communications in the European Union by 2015 that will utilize only a small portion of the spectrum. Russia and Brazil are reportedly considering similar moves, and analysts say China could also follow suit.
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) believes a solution can be reached to ensure vehicles will have enough bandwidth to function, while also allowing Wi-Fi to use part of the spectrum, The Detroit News said.
“There is room for both,” he said. “I think it is going to save lives.”
