Skip to main content

ITS Australia: cooperative ITS closer to reality

ITS Australia welcomes recent Australian policy and international standards announcements that pave the way to making connected vehicles a reality and expanding opportunities for Australian innovation. Another important international step toward wireless connectivity for vehicles was the 12 February announcement of technical standards by the European Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI) and the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). These standards ensure that vehicles made by different European ma
March 7, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
858 ITS Australia welcomes recent Australian policy and international standards announcements that pave the way to making connected vehicles a reality and expanding opportunities for Australian innovation.

Another important international step toward wireless connectivity for vehicles was the 12 February announcement of technical standards by the European Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI) and the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). These standards ensure that vehicles made by different European manufacturers can communicate with each other.

ITS Australia Chief Executive Officer Susan Harris said this 1690 European Commission announcement and the recent United States Government Department of Transport decision to enable vehicle to vehicle communication technology are timely following the release last December of the Australian National Transport Commission (NTC) Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems Final Policy Paper.

The NTC Final Policy Paper analyses the risks, barriers and potential regulatory reforms required for an Australia wide harmonised platform for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) technologies that will ensure the best safety and efficiency outcomes, and respect the privacy of individuals.

Harris said it was significant that the NTC did not find any legislative roadblocks to the deployment of the technology in Australia. “The Final Policy Paper also identifies a number of areas that require further review.  For example, Recommendations 6 and 7 say that research, based on identified gaps in international research that are relevant to Australia should be conducted,” she continued.  

She went on to say that wireless vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication will help deliver safer and more efficient traffic flows. “It will deliver great community benefits – for drivers, pedestrians, our environment and our economies,” she said.

“The proposed Australian Intelligent Transport Cooperative Research Centre will be ideally placed to leverage off the international work and target research into any gaps identified in applying C-ITS to Australian conditions.

“The recent announcements from Europe and the USA emphasise that C-ITS development is rapidly gaining momentum. Australia must keep pace with international developments to capture the safety, environmental and economic benefits it will deliver.

“The Australian ITS industry has a strong presence in this technology and we must also ensure that our competitive advantage is maintained.

“We need an Intelligent Transport CRC to provide the vital link between industry, research bodies and systems users to ensure that we continue to foster Australian innovation and international opportunities in this growing market,” said Harris.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ITSA & IBTTA applaud Infrastructure Act
    November 11, 2021
    $1 trillion legislation is hailed as 'essential step' in modernising US roads and bridges
  • ITS sector must use less confusing industry terms says Q-Free
    December 23, 2015
    For ITS to gain the recognition it deserves, Q-Free’s Knut Evensen argues that the sector must have a coherent message and avoid confusing the wider community with a bewildering array of terms and acronyms. Any industry or group of people will develop its own lexicon over time. The process is near-inevitable, as individuals’ knowledge bases increase and evolve, and terms for common wisdom are created and become truncated, or even slang. A danger, though, as a relatively small group looks to admit large numb
  • Smart phones offer smarter way to pay for travel
    December 16, 2013
    David Crawford reviews developments in near field communications for mass transit payments. ‘A carefully-designed and well-implemented mobile near field communications (NFC) solutions can give passengers a compelling experience that will encourage them to make greater use of public transport.’ That was the confident conclusion of a recent joint White Paper drawn up by the International Association of Public Transport and the global mobile operators’ representative group GSMA.
  • More thought needed on ITS privacy and data protection
    February 27, 2012
    It's long been the case that policy should drive technology and not the other way round.