Intelligent Car Initiative - Priority Setting

Priority Setting

Due to the great number and variety of possible activities and actions in the field of the 'intelligent' car, the Commission announced in its first review of the Intelligent Car Initiative that it would give priority to four particularly important challenges. These are:

• The introduction as from September 2010 of the pan-European automatic emergency call system eCall,
• Mandatory fitting of electronic stability control in all new cars as from 2014,
• A stronger focus on less fuel consumption and CO² reduction,
• and - last but not least - the safe fixing and use in the car of mobile electronic consumer products such as cell phones or navigation systems.

In collaboration with European research project 'PReVENT', the report was presented to the international media and an expert public in the framework of a conference on 'intelligent' cars. The conference, which was accompanied by a large exhibition, took place in Versailles/France on 18 September 2007. On this occasion, the initiator of the Intelligent Car Initiative, Ms Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, was accompanied by Ms Valérie Pécresse, French Minister of Research and Higher Education, Mr Gang Wan, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, and Mr Mario Lino Soares Correia, Portuguese Minister of Transport and Telecommunications. Their presence proved the growing interest in and importance of 'intelligent' cars.