Toyota and its luxury vehicle division Lexus are planning to install Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) systems on their vehicles sold in the US from 2021.

The installation, expected to begin across most of its line-up by the mid-2020s, will increase safety and facilitate in creating an efficient driving ecosystem by enabling vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications.

Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) CEO Jim Lentz said: “By allowing vehicles’ intelligent systems to collaborate more broadly and effectively through DSRC technology, we can help drivers realise a future with zero fatalities from crashes, better traffic flow and less congestion.”

DSRC technology has already been deployed in some areas in the US following extensive tests through government-industry collaborations.

It supports the broadcast of precise anonymised vehicle information such as location, speed and acceleration, multiple times per second.

“We can help drivers realise a future with zero fatalities from crashes, better traffic flow and less congestion.”

This data can be utilised by other DSRC-enabled vehicles to prevent collisions.

The communication is also expected to provide other important real-time information to drivers, including traffics, potential hazards, road conditions and signals.

DSRC technology communicates using seven channels of the 5.9GHz spectrum band allocated for Intelligent Transportation Systems.

As it is based on industry standards, future Toyota cars equipped with DSRC technology can communicate with other automobile manufacturers’ DSRC-equipped vehicles.

In 2015, Toyota and Lexus started selling DSRC-equipped vehicles in Japan. As of March this year, more than 100,000 such vehicles were operating in this country.

In future, the communication technology DSRC can also be combined with other technologies in the automated vehicle systems to make journeys safer and more comfortable.