Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE), such as a vehicular UE, may perform proactive beam management in a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications system. In some cases, road conditions may affect V2X connectivity for the V-UE. For example, if the V-UE is using a narrow beam and approaches a road with a steep gradient, the narrow beam may be unable to detect other V-UEs, which could lead to connection loss. Instead, the V-UE may proactively perform beam management or beam refinement to adjust the beam and maintain connectivity. For example, the V-UE may select a wider beam which has greater coverage, or the V-UE may update a direction of the narrow beam to maintain connection with neighboring V-UEs. The V-UE may use onboard sensor and computer vision-based techniques to detect changes to road conditions or its trajectory.