Panel Session of “Regulatory Affairs in NAFTA”: Global Harmonisation and Synchronisation”

The Panel session scheduled to take place during the DVN US workshop was postponed due to insufficient time and was rescheduled as a teleconference.

• This teleconference, joined by 98 lighting experts in countries including USA, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Austria, Czech Republic, and Japan, using dial-in and web based desktop sharing facilities provided by OSRAM SYLVANIA, took place on 29 January 2015. These experts experienced an enthusiastic debate amongst the nine panellists and contributed to an active question and answer session. The session was finally drawn to a close after two and half hours and it clearly justified the decision to postpone and reschedule the teleconference, allowing us to debate this question of global harmonisation and synchronisation of technical requirements in more depth.
• The panel consisted of Regulators and representatives of industry and leaders of the SAE Lighting Systems Group task forces. Representing the NHTSA Office of Crash Avoidance Standards were David Hines, Director, and Markus Price, Standards Engineer. Representing Transport Canada was Senior Regulations Development Engineer, Marcin Gorzkowski. Marcin is also Chair of the SAE International Cooperation Committee and has just stepped down from his longstanding position as chairman of GRE.  Experts from the SAE Systems Group  and from industry were: Sunil Dalal, Lighting Engineer, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing-North America; Michael Flannagan, Research Associate Professor, UMTRI; Michael Larsen, Technical Lead Engineer, Automotive Exterior Lighting, General Motors , Chair of SAE Regulatory Cooperation Task Force and sponsor of J3069 (test procedures, performance requirements, design guidelines and installation guidelines for Adaptive Driving Beam systems); Dennis Novack, Development Lead, Exterior Lighting, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Vice Chair Signalling and Marking Devices Standards Committee;  and  Bart Terburg, Automotive Regulations Manager, OSRAM SYLVANIA, Chair of the SAE Lighting Systems Group and GTB Vice President.
• A detailed report of the session is being prepared but, in the meantime, I would like to share the main points discussed and the overall conclusion from the session.
• David Hines and Markus Price of NHTSA expressed their appreciation of the efforts of DVN to provide the opportunity for NHTSA to engage with the large group of lighting experts. They explained that the motives of NHTSA were sometimes misunderstood and this was evident from some of the comments from presenters during the DVN Rochester workshop.