eSafety at Aalborg ITS Congress

Creation date: 11 July 2007

eSafety was a key subject on the agenda at the 6th European ITS Congress and Exhibition in Aalborg, Denmark held in June. A series of sessions updated and informed Congress attendees about the latest developments of the eSafety initiative. 

Special insight at Special Session
The highlight of eSafety activities in Aalborg was a 18 June Special Session spotlighting the next steps in Intelligent Car Initiative and eSafety. Organised by the European Commission, the session’s objective was to present and discuss the main strategies and next steps in the Intelligent Car Initiative and its three pillars, with the focus on the eSafety Forum and its working groups. It was moderated by the EC’s Francisco Ferreira and included high-level speakers active in the eSafety Forum.

eSafety Forum Steering Committee Co-Chairman and ERTICO - ITS Europe CEO Arnold van Zyl spoke about the future of the eSafety Forum, highlighting its successes to date. He presented a vision of the future which supports the development of a cooperative infrastructure and extends from eSafety to other applications.
 
Risto Kulmala, Research Professor at VTT, gave an update and status report of the eSafety Forum’s Implementation Road Maps Working Group, of which he is the co-chair. He also presented some information regarding the assessment of systems and the eSafety effects database. He announced the 14 November 2007 workshop in Brussels which will focus on European and International activities surrounding eSafety deployment and encouraged everyone to attend.
 
Wolfgang Reinhardt, Director Regulatory Affairs of ACEA, updated Congress goers about another eSafety Forum Working Group – ICT for Clean & Efficient Mobility, which he co-chairs. The Working Group was set up in November 2006 to identify and promote the potential benefits of ICT-related applications and services. Mr Reinhardt presented some key factors as well as the main impacts, such as cooperative systems, real-time dynamic navigation, traffic management and eco-driving.

Creating eSafety awareness was the topic of the presentation of Jacob Bangsgaard, Director of Transport and Mobility, FIA Foundation. Mr Bangsgaard highlighted the eSafetyAware! Initiative’s activities supporting ESC - including a discussion of ESC statistics, public awareness campaigns and its launch event near Rome on 8 May 2007.

Other sessions
Safety, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, and Cooperative Systems were the focus of an executive session on safety on 19 June. EC DG INFSO Head of Unit André Vits centred on the EC’s approach for safer mobility in its Intelligent Car Initiative. He touched on the challenges faced by mobility today and how the Intelligent Car Initiative aims to improve the quality of the living environment by supporting ICT solutions for safer, smarter and cleaner mobility of people and goods. He explained the Initiative’s three pillar approach, which includes the eSafety Forum, the EU research programmes and awareness actions. Mr Vits was also a speaker at the event's opening ceremony on 18 June.

Specific eSafety developments were also discussed by eSafety Support’s very own Alessandro Carrotta in a technical session on 18 June. Dr Carrotta summarised the activities contributing to the progress of the 28 recommendations, in order to assess the degree of achievement of the objectives of the initiative, and to point out the major bottlenecks in order to assure the progress towards the objectives.

eSafety Support on the scene!

The eSafety activities in Aalborg would not have been complete without the presence of eSafety Support, which had a very happy home in the European Commission stand. Brochures and information about eSafety activities were served up with eSafety enthusiasm, and visitors to the stand were also able to discuss all things eSafety and surf the revamped eSafety Support website.

For more information, including copies of the presentations mentioned above, please contact info@esafetysupport.org