in 2017. Other automakers began looking closely at a newer technology called cellular V2X , using existing cell networks to send communications.In 2017, the Trump administration announced that it was killing an Obama-era mandate that would have required new cars to be equipped with V2V technology. And last year, tensions escalated when the FCC put out a new plan to use some of the spectrum set aside for V2X to expand Wi-Fi instead.
Flash forward to 2022, and no vehicle on the road today is using V2V technology in any meaningful way. “For the next twenty years, intelligent transportation systems did not develop as the FCC had hoped they would,” Walker writes in his decision. “As of 2020, ‘no commercially-marketed vehicles’ used the 5.9 GHz band to provide vehicle safety features.”
Walker also sides with the FCC’s explanation of the remaining 30MHz of spectrum as being sufficient for intelligent transportation systems, while also noting that new technologies, such as “radar, LIDAR, camera, and sensors,” will help make up the difference.