The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has decided to require newly made cars to broadcast their location, direction, and speed to avoid collisions through vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology.

Three years ago, the Department of Transportation published the original plan for the vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology, explaining what kinds of data would be transmitted.

“Data that may be exchanged includes each vehicle’s latitude, longitude, time, heading angle, speed, lateral acceleration, longitudinal acceleration, yaw rate, throttle position, brake status, steering angle, headlight status, turn signal status, vehicle length, vehicle width, vehicle mass, bumper height, and the number of occupants in the vehicle.”

Currently, vehicles contain several additional technologies that help drivers stay safe on the road. For example, some cars automatically stop to avoid collisions, or can remain at a fixed distance behind another car. Others can also avoid drifting and steer back into a lane automatically.

With the new law, vehicles would become even safer, severely reducing the number of accidents. Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx informed reporters that new innovations merited further safety mechanisms.

“A lot of innovation and safety to this point has been about protecting the occupants of a vehicle after an accident occurs, [but now] the safety advances kick in before an accident occurs,” he said.

The proposed system currently plans to provide drivers with warnings, and would not automatically take control of the vehicle. Instead, the warnings would show up either on a display screen, or perhaps through a vibrating steering wheel.

In the future, experts hope that the system will allow people riding in vehicles to remain safer and more controlled, allowing the tedious time spent in traffic to be better used working. Additionally, the new system could possibly help those with disabilities.

“We think of cars as mechanical systems, but they are actually rolling computers. These computers are changing what it means to drive,” said John Lee, a professor at the University of Washington, in a Senate Commerce Committee.

However, with the revelations from Snowden, some experts remain concerned that the new system will grant the government more control over more sectors of personal life, in this case, vehicles.

Others simply do not trust the new system, because they believe that the technology does not exist, and would be infeasible.

“I don’t think that vehicle-to-vehicle technology is really a good idea,” Venkat Sankar (9) said. “Although it might make driving safer, it seems far-fetched and I think it won’t help much until the technology is completely created.”

Foxx hopes that the law concept will start to be implemented before President Obama leaves office in 2017. He believes that eventually, the system could be expanded to herald a new generation of technology.