Toyota Testifies on Future Surface Transportation, Challenges of Connected Car Technology, Transportation & Roads

Vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) is the idea that sounded like something firmly set in science fiction seems to be a quickly approaching reality.

Toyota is playing a leading role in this revolution and Vice President of the Toyota Technical Center, Kristen Tabar, appeared before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology in June to discuss the future of surface of transportation.

“We have no doubt that the technology will save lives, improve the environment, create jobs and help the U.S. maintain technical leadership in a field that will be an important contributor to economic growth in the future,” said Kristen Tabar.

Tabar said Toyota is leading the way to ensure the next generation of vehicle communication brings the highest levels of safety, quality, and convenience to consumers. She also spoke about the challenges that lie ahead in making the most of these innovations.   

She called on policymakers to support and protect the major advances of V2V and V2I communication with greater investments in infrastructure and protection of medium – range wireless spectrum from unlicensed devices.

"For the auto industry and those who have been involved in the development of this technology, the use of the spectrum allocated for V2V and V2I communication by unlicensed devices raises significant, and possibly insurmountable, concerns about the potential for harmful interference" Tabar said.

“Congress and U.S. Department of Transportation should be looking at ways to incentivize or facilitate the build out of infrastructure to support V2I communication,” she said, adding that it would be unfortunate if the U.S. had to shut the door on V2I communication technology because of a lack of intelligent infrastructure investment.

She noted Japan's strong assurance to infrastructure investment as one of the major reasons Toyota began commercialization of V2I in that country.

New connected vehicle technology also boosts security and privacy concerns. “The truth is that the success of the technology is in large part dependent on public acceptance, and public acceptance requires that the network be adequately secure and that the privacy of drivers and passengers be preserved,” she said.

Because of all those concerns, as Toyota begins the very early stages of commercial deployment of new V2V and V2I technology, the company does not anticipate full integration of the communication system and electronic control elements of the vehicle in order to limit ramifications of a potential cyber incident. 

“The good news is that the connected vehicle system is being developed to support the security that is required and to minimize the potential for hacking,” she said.

Finishing her speech she advised the  subcommittee to devote more research and development into autonomous driving technologies, including how V2V and V2I communication technology can be leveraged effectively to support automated driving.