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What Is Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII)?
The Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) Initiative is a cooperative effort among U.S. Department of Transportation, state and local governments, the automobile industry, and other partners to support development of an information infrastructure for ongoing real-time data communications with, and among, vehicles to enable a number of safety, mobility, and commercial applications.  An implemented VII network will enable travelers to access traffic conditions and routing information for multiple modes of travel, receive warnings about imminent hazards, and conduct commercial transactions within their vehicles. Transportation agencies will have access to data needed to better manage traffic operations, support planning, and more efficiently manage maintenance services. Primary applications include:
- Warning drivers of unsafe conditions or imminent collisions.
- Warning drivers if they are about to run off the road or speed around a curve too fast.
- Informing system operators of real-time congestion, weather conditions and incidents.
- Electronic payment capabilities.
- Providing operators with information on corridor capacity for real-time management, planning and provision of corridor-wide advisories to drivers.
The goals of the VII initiative are to (1) assess the value; (2) determine the technical feasibility, economic viability, and social acceptance; and (3) conduct research needed to support development of a nationwide VII network.
Detailed Overview of VII
Text only version
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Why do we need VII?
America’s roadways have a safety and congestion problem. In 2006, there were 6 million traffic crashes in the U.S., injuring just under 2.6 million people. In the same year, a crash occurred every 5 seconds, someone sustained a traffic-related injury every 12 seconds, and someone died in a traffic crash every 12 minutes. The Nation’s urban congestion problem resulted in 4.2 billion hours of travel delay, 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel, and a net urban congestion cost of nearly $80 billion, according to a 2007 Texas Transportation Institute report. Today, highway vehicle travel accounts for 81% of total U.S. transportation energy consumption.
Fifteen years of ITS research has indicated that traffic condition and roadway information can have a tangible and significant positive impact on these statistics. Furthermore, new technology, enabling active safety applications, such as advanced warnings to drivers approaching a patch of ice or merging into another car, have the potential to provide whole new levels of safety benefits.
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