Auto, technology industries clash over talking cars

WASHINGTON (AP) — Automakers say cars that wirelessly talk to each other are finally ready for the road.

The cars hold the potential to dramatically reduce traffic deaths, improve the safety of self-driving cars and someday maybe even help solve traffic jams.

The government and the auto industry have spent more than a decade and more than $1 billion researching and testing the technology. It's known as vehicle-to-vehicle communications, or V2V.

But there's a big catch. Cable television and high-tech industries want to take away a large share of the radio spectrum that the government dedicated exclusively for the safety technology in 1999, and use it instead for superfast Wi-Fi service. Auto industry officials are fighting to hang onto as much of the spectrum as they can.