eSafety Forum

Making Europe's roads safer for everyone

The eSafety Forum is a joint platform involving over 150 active members representing all road safety stakeholders. Its general objective is to support the development, deployment and use of preventive and active safety systems, so-called eSafety systems. Today, the eSafety Forum is largely recognised by both Member States and the wider international community as the driving force in promoting eSafety in Europe.

The work programme of the eSafety Forum and its Working Groups is produced by the eSafety Forum Steering Group, co-chaired by the European Commission, ERTICO and ACEA.

ERTICO is also active in the following eSafety Forum Working Groups:

eCall Driving Group
The aim of the Driving Group is to implement a pan-European in-vehicle emergency call (eCall). An eCall architecture and functional model have been developed and the eCall Memorandum of Understanding released in August 2004 by the EC, ACEA and ERTICO has been signed by a large number of European stakeholders. Numerous Member States are already in the process of upgrading their emergency centres to enable them to deal with eCalls. The goal is to finalise this upgrade within the EU before 2010.

Digital Maps Working Group
Digital maps have great potential to improve road safety, providing eSafety systems with an accurate view of the car’s environment. The Working Group has developed a cooperation model for digital maps, enabling the public and private sector to produce, maintain, certify and distribute eSafety attributes for digital map databases.

User Outreach Working Group
User awareness and user demand are important issues for deployment of eSafety technologies. The Working Group has analysed different communication methods and channels and will propose activities to be launched in the coming years to enhance user awareness.

International Co-operation Working Group
Information exchange between the stakeholders of major regions such as the EU, US and Japan is important in view of increased global harmonisation. The Working Group has developed a list of priorities for international eSafety cooperation.

Communications Working Group

The Working Group will produce specifications for a harmonised EU-wide communication system for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. Such a system would enable stakeholders to develop business models based on common standards in a common market.

Real-time Traffic Information (RTTI) Working Group
The aim of the Working Group is to provide 50% of all key metropolitan areas in Europe with adequate, standardised real-time traffic information services by 2010. Using the Traffic Message Channel – a specific application of the FM Radio Data System used for broadcasting real-time traffic and weather information – data messages are received silently and decoded by a TMC-equipped car radio or navigation system. The technology is on the market, but the Working Group recommends that it be made available in more countries, across national borders and with increased coverage of national and urban road networks.

Implementation Road Maps Working Group
The Working Group has been tasked with developing the technical/economic road maps for the introduction of eSafety systems. It has identified 11 priority systems capable of reducing fatalities and produced a draft report proposing recommendations to accelerate the deployment of these systems.

Contact

Alessandro Carrotta

Visit the eSafety Forum website