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DEKRA welcomes new European ITS directive due to be published soon

Important Step on the Way to Making Traffic in the EU Safer, More Secure, and More Sustainable

Oct 24, 2023 Automotive / Future Vehicle & Mobility Services / Digital & Product Solutions / Safety on the road

The European Union will soon have a revised directive on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). After the vote in the European Parliament on October 3rd and the adoption by the European Council on October 23rd, the new legislation is due to officially be published. Leading expert organization DEKRA is welcoming the general progress made in this revised directive. “This is an important step on the way to making traffic in the EU safer, more secure, and more sustainable, and DEKRA fully supports the objectives set out in the directive”, says Oliver Deiters, Head of DEKRA’s EU Representation Office. “It is, however, only another starting point. Many concrete steps must follow, taken by the European Commission as well as member states in the coming months and years.” The term ITS embraces the use of different modern technologies aiming to shape future mobility in an efficient, safe, secure, and sustainable way.

  • Starting point for concrete measures to be implemented by member states
  • Technology neutrality and interoperability will be important in many fields
  • DEKRA is committed to support any progress with its services and expertise
Among other things, the revised directive stipulates that data sharing in the mobility, transport, and logistics sectors must be implemented in machine-readable formats to address multimodal services. At the same time, it requires that data protection and privacy are respected, as well. “The question of who has access to what kind of data under which specific rules and regulations will be a decisive factor in shaping tomorrow’s mobility”, says Thomas Jäger, Senior Vice President Global Connectivity Technologies at DEKRA.
In the directive, the European Commission is mandated to, by the end of 2026, establish a common European access point for stakeholder access and reuse of transport-related data. This common European access point shall connect all national access points and offer access to all provided data. The Commission shall consult the European ITS Advisory Group and other stakeholders before adopting any new acts to amend the list of data types.
Also, according to the legislation, necessary measures need to be defined to support road users’ safety, as far as the use of their on-board human-machine interface and devices like cell phones is concerned. Security of in-vehicle communications is another important aspect, not least because modern vehicles are becoming more and more connected, communicating with vehicle OEMs’ servers, infrastructure, or other vehicles.
In terms of technology, the legislation takes a new approach in contrast to the initial 2010 ITS directive, making it clear now that technology neutrality needs to be ensured. “It is important that the directive recognizes the evolutionary nature of technology”, says Thomas Jäger. “It does not create market certainty to prescribe specific technologies to be used because they may prove to lead to a dead end in the future in some cases or may exclude necessary innovations.”
Interoperability will be a decisive factor of a functioning mobility system in the future. It will be essential both on an application and on a service level. ITS messages need to be mutually accepted by modes of transport, devices, and sensors. The directive takes this into account. Also, it promotes testing under real-life conditions and especially across vehicle manufacturers and infrastructure providers. “This can be the basis for relevant compliance assessment schemes in the future”, says DEKRA expert Jäger.
The European Commission is required to adopt a working program for the implementation of the directive within 12 months after publication. Member states need to transfer the revised directive into national legislation.
“DEKRA is fully committed to support any progress that can be made under this directive to save lives, provide maximum security for industries and people and help to develop, implement, and improve sustainable ITS solutions”, sums up DEKRA representative Deiters.
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