Release by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile to the European Commission’s Intelligent Car Initiative

As the voice of Europe’s motoring consumers, representing over forty million motorists in Europe, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile has as one of its highest priorities to increase the sustainability of car use. The FIA therefore welcomes the European Commission’s Intelligent Car Initiative promoting smarter, safer and cleaner cars.

Modern societies largely depend on mobility and the car is the premier mode of transport for the vast majority of European citizens. It is unmatched for independent and convenient mobility and its benefit to society will continue to grow as the balance between social costs and benefits becomes increasingly positive. However road safety, congestion and air pollution are still important problem issues that need to be tackled. With regard to road safety there are still an unacceptable number of more than 40 000 citizens dying each year on Europe’s roads whereas congestion and air pollution problems are affecting numerous European towns and cities.

The FIA supports the Commission’s view that intelligent car technologies can help mitigating these problems. For instance the EU eSafety initiative has in the field of road safety a tremendous potential to avoid road casualties and to reduce the consequences of road accidents. eCall based on full implementation of the European emergency number 112 will speed-up response time of emergency services to car accidents and saving lives. With regard to fuel efficient driving the currently developed gear shift indicators can help the driver to shift gears at the right moment, optimise the engine performance and lead to a more efficient use of fuel. On Europe’s busiest routes real time traffic information can improve traffic flow and reduce congestion.

A series of these innovations are technically ripe but do not reach the mass market. For instance even active safety systems with a high acceptance such as ESP encounter a very slow take-up. The awareness about safer, cleaner and more economical driving is weak. This has been confirmed by a Eurotest survey  carried out in 14 EU member states. From 2800 drivers only half were familiar with existing basic in-vehicle technologies providing active and passive safety. The lack of awareness and information in the market and the low return on private investment of a large-scale deployment impairs the business case of the manufacturers. The eSafety Forum has shown that the widespread take-up of Intelligent Car Systems cannot depend on private business case only. The support of the public sector at European level and the support of the key stakeholders are needed to stimulate the user’s demand, as it has also been stressed by the CARS 21 initiative. The FIA therefore strongly welcomes the establishment of an “eSafety Communication Platform” aiming at improving, coordinating and harmonising the end-user communication.

Consumer testing is an efficient way to raise awareness and to inform the consumer about safety issues. The FIA supports therefore the proposal of the Commission to set-up an independent performance assessment programme following the example of the Euro NCAP as an important milestone of the Commission’s strategy.

The FIA welcomes the proposal of the Commission to investigate the possibility to use appropriate incentive schemes at national level in order to support the purchase of cars equipped with advanced safety systems such as ESP. The rationale of such incentives follows the measures already proposed for environmental objectives.

All new cars types should be equipped with ESP. If voluntary agreements supported by consumer campaigns do not lead to a rapid deployment of ESP legislative measures need to be considered.

For more information please contact the FIA European Bureau
February 2006