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The Fully Network Car Workshop |
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PALEXPO, Geneva, Switzerland |
04 March 2009 |
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Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a pleasure for me to welcome you here today for the opening of this
fifth World Standards Cooperation workshop on the topic of information and
communications technologies (ICT) for motor vehicles held at the Geneva
Motor Show.
As in previous years I would like to thank our sister international
standards organization partners in the WSC: the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC)
for their help in organizing the event together with the steering committee
drawing from all corners of the ICT and automotive worlds.
I would also like to thank our sponsors IEEE, Freescale Semiconductor, and
Telemobility.
And of course you will have noticed the Lightning GT Car as you came in. We
are very grateful to Chris Dell from Lightning for allowing us to showcase
this amazing vehicle.
The Lightning car is a symbol of the environmental consciousness that is
sweeping this industry.
The main theme of this year’s Fully Networked Car event is, as last year,
climate change.
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has called this the moral challenge of
our time, and has asked ITU to play a role in combating climate change. We
responded and I am pleased to report that we are making good progress
towards a standardized methodology that will allow ICT companies to measure
their carbon footprint.
It’s a natural step to look at how these technologies can help the motoring
industry realize the challenges before it.
This year we are very proud to have such an impressive array of speakers. In
our Executive Sessions, we also have Burkhard Göschel, from Magna
International, who is also Chairman to the Grand Prix Manufacturers
Association (GPMA) and Chairman to the Formula 1 Manufacturers Advisory
Committee; Russell Shields, Chairman, Ygomi; Tadao Saito, CTO, Toyota
InfoTechnology Center; Hermann Meyer, CEO, ERTICO (ITS Europe); and Ivan
Capelli of the Monza Research Institute who many of you will remember as a
former Formula 1 driver with Ferrari. I am sure we are all very much looking
forward to hearing what they have to say.
The speakers in the workshop programme have been selected to highlight the
efficiencies that can be gained by connecting vehicles to a network. By
doing so, we can see benefits in terms of traffic management, monitoring and
analysis, all of which can help tackle the climate change challenge. A
glance through the programme shows some interesting solutions, I am
particularly looking forward to learning about efficient parking. Any
technology that can help me find a parking space in Geneva will be very
welcome!
ICTs will help us to understand what needs to be done and can help to create
efficient transport systems for the future. It’s a challenge that is being
taken very seriously by the industry and I am very happy to see such a wide
variety of participants here today. I hope you will engage with our
excellent panelists at the end of each session to discuss these pertinent
issues, and especially to identify areas of work for the WSC organizations
on international standards.
Following last year’s event ITU started work on a vehicle gateway platform
for telecommunication/ITS services/applications, and we welcome your
participation in this work. I hope other areas of new work will come from
this year’s event.
We are also working on specifications that will enhance communications in
vehicles, including the development of requirements and testing
methodologies for wideband communications in cars. This work takes place in
an ITU Focus Group which means that any interested party (you don’t have to
be an ITU-member) can participate.
I am very pleased that the chairman of the focus group – Hans Gierlich, will
moderate the Executive session this morning.
In addition ITU hosts the Advisory Panel for Standards Cooperation on
Telecommunications related to Motor Vehicles. Its goal is to strengthen
cooperation amongst the standards bodies involved in the industry, to
improve information exchange between them and avoid duplication of effort as
well as to identify open issues in standardization activities.
Other related work in ITU includes studies on performance and QoS,
multimedia terminals, ubiquitous applications (e-Everything), network
security, electromagnetic compatibility, satellite navigation, transport
information and control systems, software defined radio, adaptive antennas,
vehicular radar equipment and ultra wide band technologies, to name but a
few!
I would like to invite you to become involved in these studies if you are
not already. All the details can be found on the ITU website (www.itu.int).
I wish you all a very enjoyable and informative two days.
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