DG MOVE publishes Roadmap for deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems
On April 7, 2016, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) published the roadmap entitled “A Master Plan for the deployment of Interoperable Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems in the EU”. (For the full Roadmap, please click here)
C-ITS – A summary
Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (Cooperative Systems or C-ITS) make use of information and communication technologies that enable different parts of the road transport network to share information. They allow vehicles to become connected to each other, to road transport infrastructure and to other road users. In addition to what drivers can immediately see around them, and what vehicle sensors can detect, all parts of the transport system will increasingly be able to share information to improve driver decision making and optimise transport operations.
C-ITS form an integral part of the Commission’s Energy Union Strategy by decreasing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency in road transport with better traffic management and less congestion. It also contributes to the Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy as C-ITS can incorporate ICT-solutions in transport and will create massive volumes of electronic data exchanges.
The main objectives of the Roadmap include:
- Increasing the continuity and interoperability of C-ITS, through a more coordinated development and deployment across Member States and industries.
- Increase the rate of deployment and market uptake of C-ITS to realise the full benefits of C-ITS.
- Improve the use and accessibility of data and information in the transport sector
However, the roadmap draws attention to the fact that both the industry and EU Member States have failed to meet targets previously set for 2015 for the deployment of these systems due to a severe barriers and uncertainties, such as the lack of agreement over security solutions. The targets for deployment have now been pushed back to 2019, while it also hoped that these can be addressed before the end of 2016, otherwise the EU will fall further behind global competitors in this field.
Recommendations
In 2014, in order to resolve deployment issues, the Commission setup the “Platform for the Deployment of C-ITS in the European Union (C-ITS Platform)”, comprised of EU and industry, public and private stakeholders. The platform produced a final report in January 2016, which made the following recommendations:
- A concrete set of “Day 1 C-ITS Services” that are most promising should be deployed in the short term in vehicles and infrastructure (e.g. road works warning, emergency brake light warning, traffic light information, display of current speed limits, etc.).
- Methods for privacy and data protection must be assured if such services are deployed. C-ITS related data is considered personal data, therefore the principle of informed consent of the end-user has been endorsed by the platform.
- A common security solution (“Trust Model”: Certificate Policy and Security Policy for authentic secure communications) for CITS communication needs to be implemented all over Europe, as security is a key current obstacle for deployment.
- Concrete new standardisation items (e.g. in the field of access-to-in-vehicle-data or security).
- C-ITS compliance assessment process has been designed and recommended by the platform to ensure interoperability e.g. through compliance with standardisation and the common security solutions
Furthermore, funding for C-ITS pilot projects has been made available under EU funding programmes (TEN-T, CEF – Connected Europa Facility, FP7 and H2020). Some Member States are taking leadership in terms of deployment to answer specific transport needs, while other Member States that are planning large scale testing including the UK, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
Next steps
Since there has been no legislation or specific policy in this area before, no ex-post analysis is available. However a progress report on the Intelligent Transport Strategy Action Plan (ITS) as well as a report on the implementation of the ITS Directive have been published, which highlight that the real bottleneck of C-ITS lies in deployment. Therefore an initiative has been called for to address the following issues:
- Currently, C-ITS are developed in a fragmented way across Member States and industries, resulting in interoperability issues hindering continuity of services
- The deployment and market uptake of C-ITS is slow and full benefits of C-ITS (e.g. efficiency gains in the transport system) are not realised
- The competitiveness of the European industry is endangered.
These problems are triggered by the five following important drivers:
- 1. Gaps and inconsistencies in the applicable regulatory and policy environments
- 2. Limited coordination between stakeholders in the value chain
- 3. Current C-ITS deployment faces high costs and investment risks
- 4. Accessibility of data is insufficient
- 5. EU C-ITS deployment is lagging international competitors
Without a common vision developed together with Member States and private stakeholders, the market risks become further fragmented and interoperability would be at risk.
The Roadmap suggests that the first step in stimulating EU-wide interoperability and continuity of C-ITS services should be to provide a comprehensive overview of the sector’s current situation and to review available options, with effective and complementary approaches at EU, national and/or stakeholder level to be identified.
The C-ITS Roadmap will be only a first non-legislative step, the direct impacts of which are expected to be rather limited, compared to legislative measures. However, any potential follow-up initiatives from the Roadmap will be accompanied by Impact Assessments when appropriate.
And finally, the Master Plan for deployment of ITS is planned for mid-2016.
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In: CLEPA News, Connectivity & Automation, Safety