New connected vehicle rules could boost road safety

The European Commission has agreed on the first wave of requirements for electronic communications both between road infrastructure and vehicles, as well as between vehicles.  ETSC has warmly welcomed the inclusion of safety-enhancing features in the list of priority services for so-called Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) set out in the legal text, notably the ‘dynamic speed limit information’ service.

This technology will enable, for example, variable speed limit information signs to communicate directly to compatible vehicles.  This could further enhance the accuracy of Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), a key life-saving technology that the EU has agreed to make mandatory from 2022.

However, compatibility with the technology is not yet a mandatory requirement for new vehicles or new road infrastructure.  ETSC says that road safety-enhancing C-ITS services should be available to everyone across Europe and therefore calls on the Commission to follow-up on this delegated act with legislative proposals mandating the deployment of these safety-enhancing C-ITS services as well as requiring their availability in all new vehicles.

ETSC is also concerned that vulnerable roads users were not mentioned in the list of priority services. The C-ITS platform, a consultative group which includes ETSC, has said that services designed to protect vulnerable road users would allow this group to also benefit from the potential of C-ITS.  Such measures could include crossings that detect the presence of pedestrians to warn approaching vehicles to stop.