DOT Issues Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking And Privacy Impact Assessment On V2V Communications

On December 20, 2016, the Department of Transportation ("DOT") National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and a Privacy Impact Assessment on Vehicle-to-Vehicle ("V2V") communications. In the document, NHTSA discusses how V2V systems will "contain multiple technical, physical, and organizational controls to help limit potential privacy impacts on consumers including those related to vehicle tracking by individuals and government or commercial entities." The proposed V2V system contains three primary components: (i) Basic Safety Messages ("BSMs"); (ii) a method for validating BSMs; and (iii) a communications network. The report also contemplates various privacy controls, including limited transmission radius, no BSM storage, and rotating security credentials.