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European Parliament
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Towards Europe-wide safer, cleaner and efficient mobility: the first Intelligent Car report

2007/2259(INI)

PURPOSE: to present the first “Intelligent Car Report” and to set out a strategy for safer, cleaner and more efficient mobility strategy in the EU.

BACKGROUND: launched in 2006, the “Intelligent Car Initiative” builds on advanced ICT applications in order to make Europe’s roads safer, cleaner and smarter. The Intelligent Car Initiative is a flagship project within i2010, which is the European Commission’s strategic ICT policy framework in the years running up to 2010. The Intelligent Car focuses on twelve actions grouped under three specific pillars: the eSafety Forum, RT&D and Awareness raising actions. These actions seek to accelerate the development and deployment of ICT based Intelligent Vehicle Systems in Europe.

One of the main goals of the eSafety Forums is the full-scale roll-out of eCall (the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call) by 2010. In case of an accident, the eCall system will automatically call the emergency services and provide them with the exact location of the vehicle and other information concerning the accident and vehicle occupants. When fully deployed, eCall could save up to 2 500 lives every year in Europe. The European Parliament has given its full support to eCall, calling on all stakeholders to take the necessary actions to implement eCall. (See INI/2005/2211).

Considerable progress has already been achieved in all three areas and the Intelligent Car Initiative is used as a reference point both in Europe and further afield. This Communication report on progress to date proposes new measures and seeks to further support both the Member States and Industry in the prompt implementation of the initiative.

CONTENT: as well as recognising the valuable role of the Intelligent Car Initiative, the Communication sets out three major priorities namely: safer vehicles; cleaner vehicles; and smarter vehicles.

  1. Safer vehicles: Under this priority, the Commission calls on those Member States who have not yet signed the Memorandum of Understanding for eCall, to complete the signature process by the end of 2007. The Member States should carry pilot tests of eCall in the course of 2007-2008 and upgrade their emergency rescue infrastructures by 2010. The European standardisation bodies ETSI and CEN should complete the standards needed for the roll-out of the pan-European eCall by mid-2008. For its part, the Commission will begin negotiations with ACEA, JAMA and KAMA, on the voluntary inclusion of the eCall device as a standard option in all new vehicles as from 2010. As part of the ITS deployment roadmap, the Commission will produce a set of guidelines on incentives for intelligent vehicle systems by mid-2008 and it will launch Field Operational Tests within the FP7 by mid-2008.
  2. Cleaner vehicles: Under this priority, the report calls for the ICT clean mobility Working Group, to contribute to the work of the Commission by identifying the potential benefits of the ICT systems in the field of cleaner, more energy-efficient mobility of people and goods in Europe and by proposing a methodology for measuring the impact of ICT in reducing CO2 emissions by 2008. Based on this input, the Commission will address, with the help of stakeholders, the best way forward in rolling-out the most effective ICT low-CO2 technologies for vehicles.
  3. Smarter vehicles: Under this priority, the Commission will encourage stakeholders to work together in developing proposals for safe use and fixing nomadic devices and to establish a standardised interface between the in-vehicle systems and the brought-in devices. The European Commission will use this input to come forward with appropriate actions in the 2008 ITS deployment roadmap. In other areas, the Commission will continue to work towards an open, pan-European, standardised and interoperable Communications Architecture for Cooperative Systems in Europe; it will continue to support further R&D projects under the ICT priority on cooperative systems; and it will continue to work with the Radio Spectrum Committee in solving any outstanding harmonisation issues for the allocation of ITS spectrum in the frequency range 5.9 GHz.

The development of the ITS deployment roadmap that integrates vehicles and infrastructures, will be a major EU-led initiative. As such it will feature in the ITS roll-out as announced in the 2006 review of the White Paper on European Transport Policy.