Using Dedicated Short Range Communications for Vehicle Safety Applications – the next Generation of Collision Avoidance

This paper provides the status of the Vehicle Safety Communications-Applications (VSC-A) research project, which was designed to determine if dedicated short range communications (DSRC) paired with accurate vehicle positioning can improve upon autonomous vehicle-based safety systems or enable new communication-based safety applications. This three-year project is a collaborative effort between government and industry to develop the underlying pre-competitive elements needed to enable the deployment of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication-based crash avoidance applications. The effort includes the development of core software and hardware modules and prototype applications. These use DSRC in conjunction with enhancements to vehicle positioning systems to demonstrate crash avoidance capabilities, which are interoperable between different vehicle manufacturers. To support the development of interoperable systems, the partners have participated in standards and security protocol development activities. The core modules and prototype applications are implemented on a five-vehicle testbed fleet, which will be used to conduct objective tests that are then used to validate minimum performance specifications established as part of this project. These tests will in turn support a safety benefits estimation process to determine the potential for preventing or mitigating crashes and associated fatalities, injuries, and property damage. BACKGROUND In 1999, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated wireless spectrum in the 5.9 GHz frequency range for use by DSRC systems supporting Intelligent Transportation Systems. One of the goals in establishing this DSRC capability was to improve traveler safety by 1 FCC Report and Order 99-305, adopted October 21, 1999. supporting the development of vehicle safety applications. In 2006, the FCC further refined the rules for DSRC to explicitly consider "vehicle-tovehicle collision avoidance and mitigation," reflecting the results of research experience. As a result, DSRC is enabling the development of these next-generation communications-based vehicle safety systems in the VSC-A initiative. The VSC-A project builds upon the results of the first Vehicle Safety Communications (VSC) project(1), conducted from 2002 to 2005 through collaboration between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and automakers in the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP) Vehicle Safety Communications Consortium consisting of seven automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Working together, they investigated the potential of V2V and vehicle-toinfrastructure communications as a means of improving crash prevention performance. Building upon the success of the VSC project, the CAMP Vehicle Safety Communications 2 Consortium (Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota) and NHTSA are now engaged in the final year of a 3-year cooperative agreement to conduct enabling research to support 2 FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order 06-100, adopted July 20,