  Advances in the automotive industry and the ever-increasing demand for
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are pushing for a new epoch of
networked wireless systems. Vehicular communications, or Vehicle-to-Everything
(V2X), are expected to be among the main actors of the future beyond 5G and 6G
networks. However, the challenging application requirements, the fast
variability of the vehicular environment, and the harsh propagation conditions
of high frequencies call for sophisticated control mechanisms to ensure the
success of such a disruptive technology. While traditional Radio Access
Networks (RAN) lack the flexibility to support the required control primitives,
the emergent concept of Open RAN (O-RAN) appears as an ideal enabler of V2X
communication orchestration. However, effectively integrating the two
ecosystems is still an open issue. This paper discusses possible integration
strategies, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of leveraging O-RAN
to enable real-time V2X control. Additionally, we enrich our discussion with
potential research directions stemming from the current state-of-the-art, and
we provide preliminary simulation results that validate the effectiveness of
the proposed integration.
