New Delhi, May 1 -- India's telecom regulator on Thursday released a consultation paper on how to roll out an automated wireless vehicle communications system that can potentially alert drivers of a crash on the road ahead or catch traffic violations. The consultation paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication formally launches the regulatory process for a technology that allows vehicles to wirelessly exchange data with one another, traffic signals and cellular networks in real time. TRAI regulates the sector that oversees any type of wireless communication. The technology will be enabled by on-board wireless communication devices and can allow features for safety - such as by warning drivers of an impending collision or a vehicle losing control ahead, and traffic efficiency through optimising signal timing and enabling dynamic route management to cut congestion and fuel use. For the everyday Indian driver and future car buyer, the proposal marks a significant shift from conventional safety features such as airbags and seatbelts toward proactive digital systems designed to prevent crashes before they occur. The government's primary motivation is a need to curb traffic deaths. India recorded an estimated 173,000 road fatalities and 463,000 injuries in 2023, the paper noted. The regulators argue that physical safety features inside vehicles are no longer sufficient, noting that roughly 92% of road accidents stem from failures in human recognition and decision-making - driver distraction, insufficient surveillance, misjudging distances and delayed reactions. "The first and the foremost reason for adoption of V2X Technology/Intelligent Transport System is to improve road safety and reduce road fatalities," the paper states. "We as a nation are committed to reduce road fatalities and injuries by 50% by 2030" - a pledge India made as a signatory to the Stockholm Declaration in February 2020. Several economies have adopted regulatory and industrial groundwork for V2X, with carmakers embedding communication hardware in new models, cities retrofitting intersections with roadside units, and governments designating spectrum that was uncontested a decade ago. China is among the leaders in such efforts, but trials and early deployments have also been carried out in the United States, Japan, South Korea and the UK Spectrum for an earlier vehicle communication standard was designated as far back as 2011 under the National Frequency Allocation Plan. The government's own committee acknowledged in its report that this allocation had "not been meaningfully adopted or deployed, and this critical spectrum has largely been unused"....