International eSafety Activities

6th eSafety Working Group on Intercontinental Cooperation, San Francisco, USA - 9 November 2005

Presentations made:

Activities in EU
Presentation by Juhani Jaaskelainen, European Commission on updates from the eSafety Progress in Europe.

eSafety dissemination
Presentation by Jacob Bangsgaard, ERTICO on the activities of the eScope project.

Activities in USA
Presentation by Ray Resendes, NHTSA on eSafety in the US, crash avoidance systems, crash databases, vehicle communication, awareness, and cooperation of the stakeholder.

Activities in Japan
Presentation by Hiroshi Makino, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Japan on SmartCar, SmartWay, VICS, and ETC.

Activities in China
Presentation by Wang Xiaojing, ITS China on ITS application for road safety.

Activities in Australia
Presentation by Tony Kursius, Queensland Transport on architecture and standardisation issues and the Queensland strategy to adopt the Intelligent access program for heavy vehicles.

ITS Australia
Presentation by Brent Stafford, ITS Australia on demonstration event in Australia (SmartDemo), which took place 29-30 September 2005.

HMI activities
Presentation by Dr. Lutz Eckstein, BMW on the ESoP compared with AAM and Jama. 

Incentives to support deployment of eSafety
Presentation by Fabrizio Minarini on the plans to create a new working group under the eSafety Forum, which would develop a proposal for an incentive plan for eSafety in Europe.

Agenda	.doc (43 KB)
List of participants	.doc (27 KB)
Presentations:
Australia	.ppt (762 KB)
Smart Demo 2005	.pdf (169 KB)
China	.ppt (1137 KB)
European Commission	.ppt (1279 KB)
eScope	.ppt (1193 KB)
Incentives to support deployment of eSafety, European Commission	.ppt (158 KB)
India	.ppt (175 KB)
Japan	.ppt (1882 KB)

5th eSafety Working Group on Intercontinental Cooperation, Nagoya, Japan - 20 October 2004

Topics discussed:

Review of Global eSafety Recommendations

• Summary of eSafety activities in Europe
• Outcome of 25 September High-Level Plenary Meeting in Brussels
• European Emergency Call 112
• RTTI Status
• HMI Status
• Progress of the eSafety Working Groups and Next Steps
• Update on eScope and eSafety Meeting Calendar
• eSafety update from Japan
• eSafety update from the US
• Progress on Intercontinental Cooperation
• HMI Statement of Principles
• Accident Causation Data Analysis
• Review Progress at UN-ECE-WP29
• eSafety–relevant Events in 2005

The Working Group for Intercontinental Cooperation had the meeting in Nagoya in relation to the ITS World Congress, despite the fact that Typhoon Tokage hit Nagoya at the time of the meeting.

Mr Sampson from the UK DoT presented the modified Global List of Recommendations for eSafety, which took into consideration the US and Japanese comments discussed in Parma in June, plus additional inputs.

Mr Jaaskelainen from the Commission presented an update on European eSafety activities. The Commission is preparing a second eSafety Communication focusing on Member States’ Actions and priorities as well as a plan to sustain the eSafety Forum and Steering Committee for another two-year period.

News from Japan 

AHSRA: Mr Yamauchi presented the results from the field operational tests from seven “black spots” in Japan. For example, the obstacle warning system in Maitani curve resulted 45% reduction in accidents.

MLIT: Mr Makino, National Institute of Land and Infrastructure Management at MLIT made a presentation of the Smartway for All. This "Second Stage" of ITS, with a goal of universal use by 2007, enjoys strong industry support. It will build on the success of the 9.2 million VICS systems, 3.8 million ETC units and 14.5 million Navigation Systems now in operation in Japan. The Smartway committee demonstrated 5.8 GHz Roadside beacons and standardised OBU’s at the ITS Congress.

Mr Makino also presented the current status of the work in Advanced Highway Systems (AHS) in Japan. Although the number of fatalities is going down, the number of accidents is increasing. 75% of accidents are caused by human error. Another interesting result is that over 60% of accidents are not reported. The target of the next generation Traffic Safety Systems based on Vehicle Highway Coordination is to give support to the driver at all stages: Information, Warning and Operational Support.

Prof Kawashima noted that inputting data to IHRA (International Harmonised Research Association) was an issue. He also suggested a common testing platform for HMI and said that he would pursue direct contacts with the HUMANIST project.

News from USA

Mr Resendes summarised the status of reports/ dates for the current IVI programme.

Rear-end Collision Warning: finishes end 2004. Road Departure Warning System: Still ongoing, and will finish June 2005. Naturalistic Driving Study: Ongoing until June 2005.  Electronic Braking for Trucks: just starting. The Final Report of the IVI program will be presented in San Francisco at the ITS World Congress in November 2005, together with demonstrations.

The new Programme started in 2004, with nine priorities - of which three address eSafety (Intersection Collision Avoidance, Integrated Vehicle Safety Systems and Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII).

The US-VII program is the largest, and includes partners from US-DOT, AASHTO and the vehicle makers. Over 110 Use Cases have been identified and technical studies on the use of DSRC at 5.9 GHz have gotten underway. Other work items will include preliminary architecture and business models. A major milestone will be the decision in 2008 to proceed. The first VII Workshop will be in San Francisco on 9 February 2005.

Mr Bishop stated that a valuable exchange took place at the International Task Force on Vehicle-Highway Cooperation, in Nagoya, on 14-16 Oct 2004. He added that the American Trucking Council has established an Active Safety Task Force, and will report at the 2005 ITS World Congress. Mr Narajian said that work had also been started on next-generation 911, similar to eCall. This was a NTHSA initiative.

eSafety at the ITS World Congress, Nagoya, Japan - 18-22 October 2004

ITS Japan created an impressive stand showing how ITS and eSafety applications work in a demo city created for the purpose. The stand took visitors through a presentation of the city of today and tomorrow, and guided tours featured full-scale demonstrations of ITS applications - including ADAS, eCall, parking guidance, EFC, city logistics, and bus priority systems.

Spectacular presentations of this scale attracted the attention of the public who could get an impression of how their future car will be equipped with technologies.

Report from the EC on the 11th World Congress on ITS	.doc (1202 KB)
Opening speach by Mr Bernhard Zepter, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Commission in Japan	.pdf (15 KB)

Intercontinental Cooperation Working Group meeting in Parma, Italy - 17 June 2004

Chaired by Mr Martin Rowell of Navteq, the meeting included participants from Europe, US, and Japan who discussed the international aspects of the eSafety initiative. Mr Juhani Jaaskelainen from the European Commission presented the European eSafety activities. Interventions from the US (Mr R Bishop) and Japan (Mr S Osawa from AHSRA and Mr H Makino of MLIT) showed that cooperation between activities should be strengthened in a number of areas.

The group made a prioritisation of the eSafety Intercontinental cooperation fields and the result will be discussed within the eSafety Forum.  

The main priorities mentioned for the Intercontinental eSafety cooperation are:

• Consolidation of accident data
• Global impact assessment of technologies
• Global principles for HMI
• Vehicle-Vehicle and Vehicle-Infrastructure specifications
• Standardisation and certification
• Legal issues
• Socio economic benefits
• Exchange of "Best Practice" and outreach

The next meeting will take place 20 October in Nagoya, Japan concurrent to the ITS World Congress 18-22 October 2004.

Agenda from the meeting	.doc (22 KB)
Minutes from the meeting	.doc (55 KB)
Link to the Intercontinental Cooperation Working Group

eSafety in the US

In the wake of new government data showing that road safety is improving, automakers urged consumers to continue exercising safe driving habits and become more knowledgeable on all the safety features available in today's automobiles. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued data documenting that the fatality rate on the nation's highways in 2003 was the "lowest since record keeping began 29 years ago" (see http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ for more information).

"Motor vehicle safety is among our highest priorities, and our automakers have equipped today's cars and light trucks with more safety features than ever before," said Robert Strassburger, Vice President, Safety and Harmonization, Alliance. "Consumers are doing their part, too, by buckling up and practicing safe driving habits."

Since the early days of the automobile, automakers have designed and incorporated a succession of safety features, including all-steel bodies, traction control, energy-absorbing steering columns, headlamps that see around corners, emergency notification systems. A new report, entitled "Obsessed with Safety: Creating a Cocoon of Safety," provides more examples of safety advancements (see http://autoalliance.org/archives/000149.html ).