Brussels, 23/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Secretary General of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (known by its French acronym, ACEA), Erik Jonnaert, has launched an appeal for the EU to adopt a “coherent and stable” regulatory framework to allow for the deployment of 'smart vehicles', also known as 'semi-autonomous' vehicles, in a press release published on Thursday 17 March.
The stakes are skyhigh, he said, referring to a KPMG study which put the potential value added to the British economy by the rise of this sector at €70 billion between now and 2030, equivalent to 1% of British national GDP. He explained that it is therefore vital to prevent the member states from creating disparate sets of rules and regulations which would hinder investment in this fledgling sector. The Secretary General recommends mutual recognition in many areas in connection with the sector.
He stressed that all obstacles on the single market cannot be removed in one fell swoop, but that this will have to be done gradually, “over the coming decades”. There are considerable numbers of areas to harmonise, for infrastructure, the standards on the data exchanged, cyber-security, traffic management all the vehicle standardisation process. The time being, he welcomes the increasing number of member states which allow drivers to test vehicles in the “framework of operational tests”, which he stresses will also allow the general public to familiarise themselves with this new technology.
Jonnaert welcomes the commitment of the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU in the matter and, in particular, the “European Truck Platooning Challenge”, which will be held in April. Some six builders of semi-automatic trucks will compete in the border regions and a number of European cities, with the difference in this competition that each manufacturer will platoon two or three trucks together in a convoy, which will closely follow each other automatically on the European roads. These convoys will set off from various points on different dates and all reach the port of Rotterdam together on 6 April.
The nascent technology of semi-automated vehicles is a matter of great interest to the Commission. In October of last year, the institution launched the high-level group on the sustainable competitiveness and growth of the automotive industry (GEAR 2030) (see EUROPE 11416), the successor to the high-level group CARS 2020, which will largely focus on the question of vehicle automation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)