V2X Offers Safety Benefits, but Business Case is Uncertain

Boston, MA - March 11, 2014 -- NHTSA (National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration) recently announced that it will begin steps to bring vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology for new light vehicles.  The US Transportation Secretary, Anthony Foxx, said that while he is committed to mandating the technology, there is no target date set.  The recent Strategy Analytics report, V2X: A Safety Benefit For Automotive, But How Should It Be Deployed? lays out the market potential of embedded V2X (Vehicle to X) systems should such a mandate occur.

Click here for the report: https://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=reportabstractviewer&a0=9458

A number of demonstrations have taken place showing the safety benefits of V2X, such as pedestrian detection by American Honda, using smartphones embedded with an enabled chipset from Qualcomm, and electronic brake lights by Ford, when a driver is alerted by the emergency braking of a vehicle beyond the driver’s sight.  The formation of DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) standards from existing Wi-Fi technologies have ensured reliable connectivity and low latency needed for safety benefits to function.

However, V2X faces many challenges, including:

• The cost premium that prevents consumer uptake
• The resulting lack of critical mass needed to enable V2X to perform as a viable safety system
• The security of the V2X system needed to ensure data privacy and to prevent hacking intrusion
• Demand from lower-cost mobile phone-based systems that could compete against V2X.

“Wi-Fi for non-safety applications, such as infotainment, is being used as the volume platform from which safety functions can be added at little additional cost,” said Kevin Mak, Senior Analyst in the Automotive Electronics Service (AES) at Strategy Analytics.  He added, “Vendors are designing flexible systems in order to increase economies of scale that would lower cost and thus increase penetration.  At the same time, further development and future standards aim to allay security fears.  While a US Mandate can generate the necessary economies of scale, the industry must not rely on it.”



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Mark Fitzgerald
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