By John Bozzella
Vehicle safety features and Washington’s big tax and budget bill are heading for a collision.
The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that passed the House orders the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to auction off swaths of federal spectrum rights over the next couple of years.
If this happens, wireless safety technology in millions of vehicles could stop working.
Electromagnetic spectrum is what carries information and radio signals across airwaves owned by the American people.
What’s carried over spectrum? Everything.
Texts, Wi-Fi, radio and TV broadcasts, streaming and so on.
To ensure devices and equipment can connect, different spectrum bands (aka frequencies) are set aside for certain types of wireless technologies.
Automakers are investing heavily in wireless connectivity and use ultra-wideband (UWB) – operating in the 6-8.5 GHz band – for lots of safety and convenience features.
That’s prime wireless real estate and the same band policymakers and other industries want turned over to other technologies.
Here’s the issue: without access to the airwaves, wireless auto safety and convenience features won’t work.
No airwaves, no (auto) service.
So, what features are at risk? A lot, actually.
Key fobs are the big one. Twenty percent of new vehicles today use UWB for key fobs to unlock, start, stop and operate vehicles.
So, an inoperable key fob is... not good.
Automakers are deploying or have plans to use UWB for other wireless features including:
Short-range radar systems to prevent collisions with pedestrians or cyclists;
Digital keys that let you access the vehicle through your mobile device;
Remote parking, hands-free trunk release and anti-theft capabilities;
Realtime vehicle positioning to locate wireless EV charging.
UWB technology can even map road surface conditions to determine if a vehicle has veered off the roadway.
Another promising UWB vehicle technology that could be in jeopardy?
Life-saving occupant detection technology that tells you if a child is left in a hot car or a person is having a medical emergency.
None of those technologies can work if automakers don’t have access to this specific and important sliver of spectrum.
Another complication: policymakers are auctioning the very spectrum that enables vehicle safety technology that other policymakers previously required automakers to make standard.
What do you do in that situation?
Paying for the tax and budget bill is important. (That’s the point of the auction, by the way. Congress will use the revenue to reduce the cost of the legislation... ‘pay-fors’ in Washington speak).
But it can’t come at the expense of the millions of current vehicles and drivers that rely on this slice of the public airwaves to safely operate their vehicles.
The good news: the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s report on the bill said UWB “frequencies between 7.25 GHz-8.4 GHz” should be excluded from auction.
The bad news: that wasn’t actually written in the bill.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) fixed this oversight in the Senate’s version of the bill. That was the right call.
The Senate should insist this spectrum is protected when it takes up the bill and ensure American drivers and passengers keep their wireless vehicle safety features.
John Bozzella is president and CEO of Alliance for Automotive Innovation.