Cellular Networks Would Be Handy for Planned Traffic-Safety System, But DOT Worries About Privacy
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Transportation needs to figure out soon whether cellular carriers can meet the privacy needs for a massive communications system that would use vehicle, traffic signal and other data to prevent accidents, a federal official central to the effort said Tuesday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is scheduled to decide in 2013 whether to start requiring manufacturers to begin building the technology needed into light vehicles, said Director Shelley Row of DOT’s joint program office for Intelligent Transportation Systems.
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Of the three infrastructure choices, mobile networks offer the strong benefits of having been built and having experts who know how to run them, Row said at the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference. But lacking working relationships with the carriers, DOT must approach them from a standing start, she said.
With cellular, “the concern … is the privacy piece,” Row said. An alternative based on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology would require the installation of an estimated 40,000 devices, and the government doesn’t know how to pay for them or their operation or who would run them, she said. “A non-infrastructure” option was rejected at first as not “viable,” but now it’s being reconsidered, Row said.
In some ways, public opinion about privacy is a bigger problem than the technology of protecting it, Row said: Data pumped out 10 times a second -- from devices built in to vehicle dashes or bought in the aftermarket -- won’t be stored, and for safety purposes, the identities of drivers and their vehicles don’t need to be known. But they may well be needed for other mobile applications that the government wants to enable through an “open environment,” some for the benefit of state and local transportation agencies but also as a source of financial support from businesses to build and run the systems, she said. The apps would be opt-in, Row said. The financing source “that we don’t want is one where you have to pay a subscription to be safe,” she said.
DOT consulted with privacy groups when the work started and is going back to them to make sure it’s on track, Row said. Privacy principles “have literally driven the technology design of the network,” she said.
The safety strategy for the next 50 years will be “making crashes avoidable,” a radical shift from an effort the past 50 to “make crashes survivable,” Row said. The idea is to create vehicle-to-infrastructure communications to flash drivers warnings of conditions such as signal changes and sharp curves and integrate the systems with handheld devices and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, she said. Early research by the highway-safety administration indicates that the technology can “impact up to 80 percent of non-impaired crash types,” Row said.
In 2013 -- “like tomorrow” in government time -- NHTSA is to decide whether to require that the communications be built into light vehicles; that the inclusion of the technology merely be disclosed to shoppers under its New Car Assessment Program; or that the research hasn’t been conclusive or has shown the communications isn’t promising, Row said. A decision on heavy vehicles is due in 2014 and on infrastructure policy in 2015, she said. “Driver distraction” is a major worry in developing the system, Row said.
DOT is encouraging the development of standards such as IEEE 802.11p and 1609, and, for DSRC, ITS J2735, Row said. The government also is working with Asian and European authorities to harmonize standards, an effort that is “going OK,” she said. Europe and the U.S. have taken different approaches, but DOT and the European Commission have agreed to an action plan to bridge the gap, Row said. Working groups will take up follow-through, she said. The department is “waiting to hear back” from auto makers, Row said. She said she was surprised to learn that U.S. and European companies had held their first meeting on the subject only in July. Another is planned this month.
DSRC, the core communications technology, has 75 MHz of spectrum at 5.9 GHz, Row said. With six service channels and a control channel available, the government is considering allowing other uses, including unlicensed ones, that don’t interfere with the safety function, she said. In the original architecture plans, DSRC was to be the only technology, but because mobility and environmental applications don’t have as strict latency and reliability requirements as safety does the system is now open to other technologies, Row said. “We are keeping a close eye” on LTE as a way to go, she said.
Security is “a big deal,” Row said. Data thought to be from a car can’t be coming from a hacker, she said. DOT is looking at public key infrastructure solutions, Row said.