The United States — technology settled, mandate abandoned.
The US resolved the standards war and then declined to make anyone deploy. C-V2X is the only permitted 5.9 GHz technology, DSRC ceases legally in December 2026, and there is no vehicle mandate and no rulemaking in prospect. As of August 2026, no automaker ships 5.9 GHz V2X in a US production vehicle.
A 75 MHz band, split, and then finalised C-V2X-only.
First Report and Order, November 2020. Split the original 75 MHz ITS band. The lower 45 MHz (5850–5895 MHz) went to unlicensed U-NII-4 Wi-Fi. The upper 30 MHz (5895–5925 MHz) was retained for ITS, C-V2X only, with DSRC designated for phase-out. Legacy licensees had to cease lower-band operations by 5 July 2022.
Interim waivers, 2022–2024. A nationwide joint C-V2X waiver (DA 22-611, June 2022) permitted early C-V2X operations ahead of final rules, followed by individual waivers; 50 waiver recipients had been authorised as of April 2024.
Second Report and Order, FCC 24-123. Adopted 20 November 2024, published in the Federal Register 13 December 2024, effective 11 February 2025. Final technical rules are set out on the spectrum page. Notably, the Commission declined to mandate a specific 3GPP release, declined to restrict the band to safety-of-life messages only, declined a 60-second geofencing-update requirement, and declined re-channelisation into distinct sub-bands.
Five dates, ending in a hard legal sunset.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 11 Feb 2025 | Rules effective. C-V2X waivers terminate. No new DSRC licences issued. |
| 11 Feb 2025 | DA 25-125 issues transition guidance; licence modifications for 28 entities (DA 25-29) take effect absent protest |
| 12 May 2025 | Deadline for licensees to file FCC Form 601 “5.9 GHz Transition Notification” certifying cessation of lower-band operations |
| 21 Apr 2025 | DA 25-352 dismisses the nine remaining early-transition waiver applications as moot |
| 14 Dec 2026 | DSRC operations must cease entirely. Existing licences renewable only to this date. |
There is a source conflict worth noting: the Federal Register preamble describes “two years from publication,” giving 13 December 2026, while the operative rule text and all FCC guidance say 14 December 2026. This site uses 14 December 2026.
Operationally, licensees register new C-V2X roadside units via Form 601 Schedule M or convert existing DSRC units via a C-V2X RSU Registration attachment. Registered RSUs must be constructed and operational within 12 months or the registration terminates automatically. Equipment requires FCC certification through a Telecommunication Certification Body.
As of August 2026 the US is roughly four months from a hard legal sunset for DSRC, with no proceeding to extend it. Legacy connected-vehicle pilot sites must convert or switch off. What the sunset means technically →
The withdrawal, and what has not replaced it.
The 2016 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for FMVSS No. 150 (V2V Communications), docket NHTSA-2016-0126, published 12 January 2017, was formally withdrawn on 20 November 2023. NHTSA cited the emergence of LTE-C-V2X and 5G C-V2X protocols and the FCC's 2020 reallocation, concluding that a regulatory action to revise the proposal could not reasonably be accomplished at that time. It said it would continue to monitor V2V development, with no commitment to a new rulemaking.
No V2X or V2V rulemaking appears on NHTSA's 2026 agenda, which is dominated by automated-vehicle deregulation and modernisation of AEB, EDR and other standards. This is the single most important asymmetry with India and China.
National targets, explicitly non-binding.
“Saving Lives with Connectivity: A Plan to Accelerate V2X Deployment,” released 16 August 2024 by the ITS Joint Program Office. Three goal areas: accelerate secure deployment, ensure interoperability, document safety benefits.
| Horizon | Target |
|---|---|
| By 2028 | V2X on 20% of the National Highway System; V2X at 25% of signalised intersections in the top 75 metropolitan areas |
| 2029–2031 | 50% of the NHS; 50% of top-75-metro signalised intersections |
| 2032–2036 | Further coverage increases, expanded spectrum use cases, broader interoperability |
The 2028 and 2031 figures are confirmed against the source document. A widely cited full-coverage figure for the final tranche is not: the document describes the final tranche only as “further increases,” so no 2036 percentage is published here.
FHWA coordinates infrastructure deployment and grant delivery; NHTSA supplies crash-prevention benefit estimates; the ITS JPO runs research and the accelerator programme.
Funding. The V2X Accelerator grew out of a $40 million FHWA notice of funding opportunity in October 2023 and now runs $60 million in cooperative agreements across three sites: Maricopa County (Arizona), the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Utah DOT, with roughly $20M to Utah and $19M to Texas as national models. The SMART Grants programme, authorised at $100M/year FY2022–FY2026, made 122 Stage 1 and 7 Stage 2 awards — but Congress has rescinded or reallocated $204.9 million in unobligated balances and no new funding notices will be issued. SMART is effectively closed.
An ecosystem-run PKI, with a commercial forcing function.
The US SCMS remains an ecosystem-run, distributed PKI — multiple independent certificate authorities designed so no single party can link certificates to a vehicle — rather than a federally operated system. USDOT has funded research and pilot instances; no federal SCMS governance rule has been adopted, and the V2X Deployment Plan flags national credential governance as unresolved. How SCMS is constructed →
In practice, device conformance runs through OmniAir Consortium certification. The forcing function is commercial: on 19 March 2024 OmniAir published updated certification test cases adding 10 mandatory and 50 optional security test cases targeting IEEE 1609.2.1 compliance — covering device interaction with SCMS providers including receipt of CRL and CTL updates and interoperability with multiple certificate providers. FHWA's V2X deployment funding requires 1609.2.1 compliance. The certification path →
No reliable national total, and a live spectrum risk worth tracking.
There is no reliable national roadside-unit total. An ITS America survey found around 18 agencies reporting deployments ranging from 2 to over 1,000 units each — 6 large (over 100 RSUs), 3 medium (26–100), 9 small (25 or fewer). Pilot scale: Wyoming I-80 with roughly 320 heavy-truck, patrol and snowplow on-board units; Smart Columbus with 1,800 OBUs; Atlanta with 1,700 intersections planned; Gainesville with 50 RSUs across 27 signal locations and 71 OBUs.
ITS America's parallel deployment plan targets 100,000 intersections in five years and 250,000 in ten — roughly 75% of all US signalised intersections.
A live risk worth tracking. Advocacy groups continue to argue the FCC should open all 75 MHz to unlicensed use and relocate ITS to the 4.9 GHz public-safety band or to 3450–3550 MHz. No FCC proceeding has been opened to do this. Treat it as advocacy, not policy.
Where this fits.
Spectrum
The US channel plan, power limits and emission masks in full.
SCMS vs CCMS
The SCMS entity map, and how it compares with Europe's.
The OEM landscape
Why no automaker ships 5.9 GHz V2X in a US production vehicle.
Test and certification
OmniAir programmes, and the 1609.2.1 security test cases.
DSRC vs C-V2X
The technical comparison that produced this outcome.
India regulation
The mandate asymmetry, from the other direction.
Last reviewed: 17 August 2026. The DSRC sunset falls on 14 December 2026; this page should be reviewed immediately after that date.
Questions this page answers.
Is DSRC still legal in the United States?
Only until 14 December 2026. No new DSRC licences are being issued and existing licences are renewable only up to that date, after which DSRC operations must cease entirely.
Is V2X mandatory in the United States?
No. NHTSA withdrew its proposed V2V rule in November 2023 and has no V2X rulemaking on its current agenda. The USDOT deployment plan sets national targets but is explicitly non-binding.
Which US vehicles have V2X?
As of August 2026, none in production. The 2017 Cadillac CTS shipped DSRC as standard equipment and was discontinued in 2019 without the feature carrying over. Ford committed in January 2019 to C-V2X in all new US vehicles from 2022 and did not deliver it in the US, though it did ship C-V2X models in China.