Talking Cars Speaking Different Tongues May Make FCC Pick Winner

The Federal Communications Commission may be forced to take a side in a long-brewing clash among automakers over differing versions of wireless-communications platforms that cars of the future will rely on to avoid collisions.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are planning to install rival vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems in their U.S. vehicles starting in the early 2020s. Only Toyota’s favored platform, dedicated short-range communications, or DSRC, has rights to airwaves regulated by the FCC.

With Ford planning to build a platform called cellular vehicle-to-everything, or C-V2X, into all of its new vehicle models in the U.S. starting in 2022, ...