The present disclosure provides a message processing method, an in-vehicle terminal, and a base station. The method executed by a first in-vehicle terminal includes: first, generating a safety message, where the safety message includes message content and a message type; then, determining, according to the message content and the message type, a priority value corresponding to the safety message; finally, sending, according to the priority value corresponding to the safety message, the safety message by using a vehicle direct communication physical VDC PHY layer or separately by using a cellular physical cellular PHY layer and a VDC PHY layer, so that a base station and/or a second in-vehicle terminal receive/receives the safety message, and the first in-vehicle terminal can send, under a preset delay requirement, the safety message to another in-vehicle terminal in a distance range that needs to be covered by the safety message.