Govt moots mandatory vehicle-to-vehicle communication in new vehicles from October 2028

New Delhi: In a move aimed at significantly improving road safety and reducing accidents on India's highways, the ministry of road transport and highways has proposed making vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems mandatory in all new vehicles in a phased manner from October 2027, according to a draft notification issued on Monday.

The proposal seeks to amend the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and is expected to lay the foundation for connected mobility and intelligent transport systems in India.

The ministry has invited public comments and stakeholder feedback on the draft over the next 30 days, after which a final notification will be issued.

Under the proposed roadmap, all vehicles in categories L (comprising two- and three-wheelers), M (passenger vehicles) and N (goods vehicles) manufactured from 1 October 2027 will be required to comply with the newly-developed AIS-230 standard wherever they are equipped with V2V communication systems. A year later, from 1 October 2028, all newly manufactured vehicles in these categories will have to be fitted with V2V communication systems conforming to the standard.

The phased implementation has been designed to provide vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers sufficient time to prepare for the new regulatory requirements.

The move marks one of the most significant technology-driven safety interventions proposed by the government since the introduction of advanced vehicle safety norms and is expected to complement the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which are increasingly being adopted in premium passenger vehicles.

Unlike conventional safety systems that depend primarily on onboard sensors, cameras and driver reaction, V2V communication enables vehicles to exchange real-time information such as speed, position, direction, acceleration and braking status. This allows vehicles to alert drivers—or automated safety systems—to potential hazards even when they are beyond the driver’s line of sight.

To explain how this would work: every vehicle will continuously send out its location, speed and direction as tiny radio signals. They will also relay information on sudden braking by a vehicle ahead, forward collision risks, unsafe lane changes, wrong-way driving and the approach of emergency vehicles The receiving car's system compares this information with its own location, speed and direction to predict a possible collision and, if necessary, alerts the driver or automatically intervenes.

Officials believe such connected communication could substantially improve situational awareness on highways and help prevent accidents before they occur.

The ministry said the standard has been developed around cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology operating in the 5.875-5.925 GHz frequency band. The department of telecommunications (DoT) has already exempted this spectrum from licensing requirements through a notification issued on 10 June 2026, clearing the way for commercial deployment of V2V applications.

AIS-230 specifies the minimum technical, functional, environmental, performance and cybersecurity requirements for factory-installed onboard V2V communication units. It covers radio performance, receiver sensitivity, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning, power supply specifications, electromagnetic compatibility and communication security requirements.

The standard also defines performance requirements for key road safety applications and provides for the phased introduction of use cases such as emergency brake alert, forward collision warning, wrong-way driving alert and emergency vehicle alert.

The proposal follows recommendations of a ministry-appointed task force on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which was constituted to develop a roadmap for connected mobility with particular emphasis on V2V communication. The task force recommended adoption of the internationally-recognized 5.9 GHz ITS frequency band for vehicle communications to improve road safety.

The technical standard was subsequently examined by the Central Motor Vehicles Rules-Technical Standing Committee during its 56th meeting held in May this year before being proposed for regulatory adoption.

The ministry said the proposed framework is expected to strengthen the use of connected vehicle technologies, improve real-time situational awareness and enable timely safety warnings, particularly on high-speed corridors where delayed driver response often contributes to serious crashes.