Thousands of Americans are killed at intersections each year, and the technology to prevent most of these fatalities already exists. The fundamental issue is a lack of communication: essential systems, from roadside cameras, lidars, radars and smart traffic lights to connected vehicles, are already operating, but as complete strangers. Failing to connect what we already have prevents sharing critical, life-saving warnings. 

Commsignia has released a new whitepaper, titled "Your cars can talk. Your intersection can see. So why are they still strangers?", which outlines a blueprint for transforming intersections into integrated digital platforms rather than isolated technological silos. Integration is achieved by merging roadside sensing, V2X connectivity, cloud/edge processing, and driver-facing systems into a cohesive, real-time decision-making environment. 

This coordination can prevent the majority of severe intersection crashes within the next decade while simultaneously improving traffic efficiency.

Key findings and evidence supporting the necessity of integration include:

• Latency is no longer the barrier: Latency was feared to be the main obstacle to vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication, but recent measurements confirm that both cloud and edge-deployed V2X services have achieved sub-100 ms latency.

• The real obstacles are interoperability and trust: Lack of interoperability and inconsistent data standards prevent disparate systems to understand and trust each other’s messages 

• False positives destroy human trust: The single biggest threat to safety systems is the erosion of trust caused by false positives and stale alerts. Studies show that drivers reduce compliance with future alerts when warnings are unreliable.

• Human-centered design is critical: Poor integration with driver-facing systems can negate all data benefits. Alert systems must be designed for human trust and action. For instance, cues that engage instinctive responses, like using a child’s voice in school-zone navigation apps, are far more effective than generic beeps or text prompts.

A Call for Coordinated Action

Commsignia demonstrated the technical feasibility of connecting systems in a multi-operator, cross-service provider environment, and proved that dual-path alerts (short-range V2X and cloud distribution) result in synchronized, verifiable, and timely messages.

The report concludes with a Call to Action for transportation agencies, automotive OEMs, technology providers, and standards bodies to commit to three areas of coordinated action:

1. Mandate interoperability and data quality standards: Adopt harmonized message formats, require misbehavior detection, and enforce Time To Live (TTL) limits for rapidly changing conditions.

2. Build integrated infrastructure-vehicle-cloud ecosystems: Deploy V2X Roadside Units (RSUs) capable of multi-sensor fusion and dual-path V2X/V2N communication, and implement consensus-scoring pipelines.

3. Design alerts for human trust and action: Make alerts contextually relevant and behaviorally optimized, avoiding over-alerting to preserve long-term compliance.

Every day intersections operate in isolation, we face another day of preventable crashes. The good news is that the technology, networks, and connections are all proven and ready to go. It's time to save lives every day.  - says Laszlo Virag, Executive President and CTO of Commsignia.

Download the full whitepaper to learn more here: https://commsignia.com/connected-intersection-safety