Skip to main content

EU presents a strategy towards C-ITS

The European Commission has adopted a European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), a milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility. The Strategy will make it possible to deploy vehicles that can communicate with each other and the infrastructure on EU roads as of 2019. Digital connectivity is expected to significantly improve road safety, traffic efficiency and comfort of driving, while boosting the market of cooperative, connected and automated driving and th
December 1, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The European Commission has adopted a European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), a milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility. The Strategy will make it possible to deploy vehicles that can communicate with each other and the infrastructure on EU roads as of 2019.

Digital connectivity is expected to significantly improve road safety, traffic efficiency and comfort of driving, while boosting the market of cooperative, connected and automated driving and the related creation of jobs.

The strategy aims to avoid a fragmented internal market and provide definition and support of common priorities. It plans to use a mix of communication technologies and to address security and data protection issues .It foresees the adoption of the appropriate legal framework at EU level by 2018 to ensure legal certainty for public and private investors. It also addresses the availability of EU funding for research and development projects and international cooperation, such as at the G7 level, on all aspects related to cooperative, connected and automated vehicles.

It also involves continuous coordination, in a learning-by-doing approach, with the C-ROADS platform, which gathers real-life deployment projects in Member States. With the help of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), projects in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom have received funding.

According to Lars Reger, CTO Automotive, 566 NXP Semiconductors, the EU decision to include a dedicated automotive wireless communication protocol in its newly decided ITS master plan is the right choice at the right time.  He says, “It reflects NXP’s findings after 10 years of research and V2X field-testing: Only a dedicated automotive wireless communication (802.11p) protocol can cover safety critical use cases, such as platooning and emergency braking. These and other types of autonomous decisions require extremely fast communications (low latencies) that cellular networks cannot achieve currently.

“Cellular networks still need further research, standardisation, field-testing and full network coverage. This EU decision sets the cornerstone for very important choices related to the European “Strategy on vehicles of the future” to be defined in 2017.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IBTTA Dublin: safety must be 'in our DNA'
    October 26, 2022
    Fatalities on Austria's motorway network have fallen but are still too many, says Asfinag
  • Welcome to the 22nd ITS World Congress
    July 31, 2015
    As we reach the 22nd edition of the ITS World Congress, I look back to the first ITS World Congress in 1994 and feel so proud for all the achievements of these past decades. With less than 10 weeks away, the Programme is taking its final shape and form into one of the most exciting industry events of this year. Over 200 Sessions and meetings have been organised for the five days, including the impressive open
  • Bringing AI into ITS: Artificial realities
    May 21, 2025
    AI can have a positive transformative effect on transportation safety and efficiency – but if you want creativity you still need a person, says Huawei
  • US ushers in reforms with new transportation bill
    November 9, 2012
    On behalf of ITS America, Paul Feenstra maps out implications and opportunities for the ITS industry. A critical milestone was reached last month when the US Congress passed, and President Obama signed, legislation reauthorising the nation’s surface transportation programmes, breaking a nearly three-year log-jam which had stymied critical transportation reforms and delayed much-needed infrastructure projects. The law, numbered P.L. 112-141 but known as MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century),