Feds: Talking Cars 'Game-Changer' for Road Safety

A wave of the future is hitting the automobile industry in the form of talking cars.

It may sound far-fetched, but it's a feature that U.S. government officials say they will soon require from automakers.

With more than 30,000 people dying every year on U.S. highways, this new technology could potentially make the nation's roads much safer.

"Early studies indicate that V-to-V has the potential to help drivers avoid 70 to 80 percent of vehicle crashes involving unimpaired drivers," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said. 

V-to-V stands for vehicle to vehicle. It allows cars to transmit their position, speed, and other information. When it senses another car getting too close, it alerts the driver of a possible collision.

In Atlanta, AT&T recently opened its first drive studio, a production center testing the vehicle-to-vehicle concept.

"With vehicle-to-vehicle communication and speech enablement, a lot of those worries, a lot of those risks, a lot of those distractions will be minimized," Zach Carter, with the AT&T drive studio, said.

A government report on the costs and benefits of these "connected cars" is due out in February.

But requiring automakers to install it in their cars remains years away. Still, officials say the technology is a "game-changer."

"When these technologies are adopted across the fleet, the results could be nothing short of revolutionary for roadway safety," said David Friedman, acting administrator for the National Highway Safety Administration.

"And when tied to vehicle infrastructure technologies, not only will they deliver safety benefits, they will be able to save fuel and increase mobility," he added.