Auto industry pushes President Obama on airwaves

Automakers, safety advocates and state transportation departments are joining forces in a new letter to President Barack Obama about the virtues of vehicle-to-vehicle technology and the potential danger of forcing cars and trucks to share airwaves with Wi-Fi. The letter comes from Ford, General Motors and dozens of others. It’s a response to a letter sent recently to the White House by a group of unlicensed airwaves advocates asking for the Administration's help in making the 5.9 gigahertz band — which is set aside for connected cars — available for sharing with Wi-Fi.

In the letter May 4, the carmakers point to programs for vehicle-to-infrastructure technology in San Francisco (CA) and elsewhere and GM’s plans to install the tech in the 2017 Cadillac CTS. “Those asking for delay seek to reconfigure the 5.9 GHz [Dedicated Short Range Communications] band in a way that would impair safety-critical applications and jeopardize their public benefits,” the letter says. “This would sweep away more than a decade of research and development, as well as delay for perhaps another decade DSRC’s life saving benefits.”