A system and method for determining vehicle position uses light based communication (LBC) signals and a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) to determine the vehicle position. Each vehicle includes a LBC system having an array of transmitting light emitting diodes (LEDs) and an array of receiver photodiodes for transmitting and receiving pulsed light binary messages. Each LBC system has a controller coupled to the transmitter diodes and receiver diodes. The controller includes a vehicle communication module that may be executed by a processor to determine the distance. The processor models a first distance between a first transmitting LBC system and a first receiving LBC system, then models a second distance between a second transmitting LBC system and the first receiving LBC system, and then determines the distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle using trilateration of the first distance and the second distance.