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The federal government and numerous industry stakeholders want vehicle-to-everything technology to become increasingly prevalent on the country’s highways, intersections and vehicles to improve safety.

Digital communication, known as V2X, could help prevent accidents, optimize system performance, improve transportation efficiency and raise awareness of road conditions in terms of aspects such as weather and construction sites, according to a plan summary.

“We firmly believe that without V2X technology, we cannot achieve zero traffic fatalities in this country,” said King Gee, director of safety and mobility for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, at a panel discussion on August 16. In his remarks, he referred to the Department of Transportation’s vision of eliminating traffic fatalities altogether.

A draft of the plan published last October called for tighter timelines, but the final version also allowed for slower targets, such as:

• 40% of intersections across the country are to be V2X-capable by 2032, 75% by 2037
• Deployment of the technology on 20% of national roads by 2029 and 50% before 2032, completion of implementation by 2037
• By 2032, more than two heavy-duty/commercial vehicle models are expected to have the GHz spectrum required to communicate via the wireless system, and more than a dozen such models are expected to have this range by 2037.

Passenger vehicles are also included in the plan, but their range appears to be less than that of heavy-duty vehicles and commercial vehicles. The plan’s ultimate goal of 20 vehicles capable of communicating in the appropriate GHz spectrum is largely for heavy-duty vehicles and commercial vehicles. However, stakeholders said the technology and plan could evolve and scale.

Hilary Cain, senior vice president for policy at the industry group Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said the auto industry has been calling for the plan for years.

“We hope that this … action by the U.S. Department of Transportation will result in some of our federal partners, including those at the Federal Communications Commission, still having to put the remaining pieces of the puzzle together,” she said.

The Georgia and Texas departments of transportation have already committed to providing connectivity infrastructure in their states, and a project led by the Nevada Department of Transportation for the I-80 corridor from California to New Jersey is also currently testing next-generation applications, Gee said.

“All of these and other moon landings will advance the plan’s goals and milestones,” Gee said.

The Federal Highway Administration also announced in June nearly $60 million in grants for areas across the U.S. to advance V2X infrastructure, including Maricopa County, Arizona; U.S. Route 60 in Arizona; College Station, Texas; the Houston area; Utah; I-70 in Colorado from Denver to Utah; Denver; I-25 in Colorado; and more.