Yeah, there's about one hundred vehicles in Ann Arbor right now running a multi-manufacturer pilot test of the car-to-car communications. Many of the cars have warning systems that use the info passed between cars to alert driver of a danger. This is useful whether or not we end up with self-driving cars. So, yes, both manufacturers the DOTs around the world want to hang onto the spectrum. It could help save lives, improve traffic flow and road utilization, and give manufacturers a set of new features they can sell to improve their profits. How horrible!
We can debate if this is the best use of spectrum. I think it is a pretty good use, and it will need to be protected and used in a coordinated way to make these vehicle applications feasible and effective. Maybe you'd rather have faster Facebook updates or see better video on demand on your smartphone or something? Would you think that's a lot more important than avoiding a massive pile up in a white-out snowstorm or fog? Manufacturers won't announce dates or specific models yet, but it could be fairly close. But it won't happen if poor spectrum management makes it technically infeasible.