Dear Friends,

Intelligent vehicles would enable more efficient driving with fewer delays, and reduce the number of road traffic accidents taking place. The Commission of the European Union, has launched on 23 February 2006, the Intelligent Car Initiative.

The intelligent car initiative is an attempt to move towards a new situation where cars don't crash any more, and traffic congestion is drastically reduced.

Latest technology for vehicles, includes among others a car that stops by itself when it senses an object in front of it, vehicles with eCall (the system that calls the emergency services automatically when an accident occurs) that could reduce the number of fatalities by between five and ten per cent. Lateral support systems, which help drivers to change lanes, could reduce the number of accidents by 1,500 with only 0.6 per cent penetration rate. A seven per cent penetration rate would mean 14,000 fewer accidents.

Unfortunately, despite their potential, most intelligent systems are not yet on the market, and when they are, large-scale deployment has taken a very long period of time due to several problems. Main barriers are legal and institutional constraints, as well as the extremely competitive nature of the automotive sector, the relatively high cost of intelligent systems and the consequent lack of customer demand, and the lack of information on the potential benefits of these systems.

We are presenting to you news from research on intelligent car in the article Intelligent cars to decrease road fatalities that you will find attached with our 40th monthly Progressive Newsletter.

It is necessary not only to continue research in this sector, but to boost it. In the year 2000, road accidents killed over 40,000 people in the EU, and injured almost two million. Research has led to a reduction in the number of fatalities on European roads, despite an increase in the volume of traffic.

The number of people injured has, however, increased. In September 2001, the Commission published its White Paper on European Transport Policy for 2010. A target of a 50 per cent reduction in the number of fatalities by 2010 was set in the paper. We have to go forward, not only reducing the fatalities further, but also reducing the number of accidents.

 
Takis A. Haggiandreou
Director

Back to the top

The challenge for intelligent safety systems is to avoid false alarms, so that users quickly come to trust them.

Our Quote:

"There is no greater mastery than mastery of oneself."

Leonardo Da Vinci