The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it’s finally ready to consider regulations that might require “light vehicles” to communicate with each other about their speed, direction of travel, and location in order to prevent collisions. The technology, called vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) could by some government estimates reduce traffic fatalities by as much as 80 percent if it’s ever fully rolled out.

The emerging V2V standard, which Ars recently looked at in depth, is based on a broadcast networking protocol similar to those used by Wi-Fi networks, GPS geolocation technology, and in-car sensors that detect rate of turn, braking, and other movement data. V2V-equipped cars continuously broadcast information in what's sort of a digital version of the swimming pool game Marco Polo, warning drivers if another vehicle’s broadcasts show a risk of a collision.

V2V technology comes with a number of technical and policy challenges that could blunt any major push to mandate it too quickly or broadly. Privacy, squabbles over radio spectrum, and the cost of the vast scale of the infrastructure (ensuring the security of the system and integrating it with highway infrastructure) are among the major pain points that need to be addressed, or at least considered, before a regulation can be put into effect.

In collaboration with a consortium of auto makers, the NHTSA recently completed a year-long trial of the technology in Ann Arbor, Michigan, using 3,000 V2V-equipped vehicles. In its announcement today, the agency stated, “NHTSA is currently finalizing its analysis of the data… and will publish a research report on V2V communication technology for public comment in the coming weeks. The report will include analysis of the Department's research findings in several key areas including technical feasibility, privacy and security, and preliminary estimates on costs and safety benefits.”

After the report is published, the NHTSA will begin to craft a regulatory proposal “that would require V2V devices in new vehicles in a future year. [The Department of Transportation] believes that the signal this announcement sends to the market will significantly enhance development of this technology and pave the way for market penetration of V2V safety applications.”

The agency has apparently decided to side-step the issue of retrofitting older cars with the technology, largely because of the potential integration problems and cost to car owners. V2V depends on sensor data similar to that used by vehicle event data recorders—the “black boxes” installed in many newer vehicle models used for post-accident forensics—and by automotive safety systems like General Motors’ OnStar telematics platform.

NHTSA did not announce any decision or timing on V2V for commercial trucks, buses, and other heavy vehicles. Additional regulations on vehicle safety for commercial trucking that require the installation of additional hardware—and potentially greater government monitoring of trucking operations—are bound to face intense resistance from the trucking industry and its lobbyists if and when they are presented.