The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) noted in an advance notice of proposed rulemaking this week that it plans to mandate the installation of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology on cars and trucks, especially safety-focused systems.

In particular, the agency noted in a research report on V2V systems that two safety applications - Left Turn Assist (LTA) and Intersection Movement Assist (IMA) – could prevent up to 592,000 crashes and save 1,083 lives saved per year. Put another way, V2V technology could help drivers avoid more than half of these types of crashes that would otherwise occur by providing advance warning, NHTSA stressed.

"By warning drivers of imminent danger, V2V technology has the potential to dramatically improve highway safety," noted NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman in a statement. "V2V technology is ready to move toward implementation and this report highlights the work NHTSA and DOT are doing to bring this technology and its great safety benefits into the nation’s light vehicle fleet."

He added that V2V technology has the potential to be “fused” with existing vehicle safety features to further improve the effectiveness of many crash avoidance safety systems currently being developed and implemented in the vehicle fleet and serve as a building block for a driverless vehicle.