Guest editorial by GTB President Geoff Draper
I started leading the regulatory sessions in 2012 at the USA Workshop. Since then we have held 15 sessions in China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, and America, and I am beginning to prepare my contribution for the 2020 DVN Workshops. Initial interest in the topic was not very high, yet there were many complaints from industry that regulations were blocking innovation. As we progressed, we discussed how regulations could be changed to facilitate innovation and we agreed on the need to develop global technical requirements applicable in all regions. Panel sessions at DVN Workshops gathered representatives from industry and government, and we focussed on building consensus to start activity, under the umbrella of the UNECE World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) to develop Global Technical Regulations according to the 1998 Agreement.
Our efforts reached a climax at the DVN 2018 Tokyo Workshop, where I was honoured to lead a session that included important speeches from Mr. Hiroyuki Inomata (Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), Chairman of WP.29-AC3; and Mr. Michel Loccufier (Belgian Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport), Chairman of GRE. There were also written contributions from Mr. Aleksander Lazarevic, of the EC, and Mr. He Yuntang representing the Chinese position. These interesting and important contributions were followed by a panel session with input of experts from Belgium, China, European Commission, India, Japan, Korea, and the USA. The outcome of the session is summarised below:
Since the 2018 Tokyo Workshop, the debate about the need to develop Global Technical Regulations has moved to the UN in Geneva where it is a permanent part of the GRE agenda. However, progress is slow due to political issues associated with American reluctance to adopt Global Technical Regulations in the U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. This is making other government and industry representatives nervous about investing their resources into the activity if the USA is not going to implement the outcome.
In conclusion, the DVN workshops have provided an effective forum to support GTB initiatives to develop global technical requirements to remove regulatory barriers, and now it is time that our regulatory sessions start to concentrate on other issues of interest to our lighting family.
I would like to pick up the theme of a DVN editorial from this past August, where he encouraged you to “Please Raise Your Voice To DVN!“. Please let us have your suggestions, as soon as possible, for subjects you would like us to address in the Regulatory Sessions of the 2020 DVN Workshops. This will give me time to organise the sessions and invite the appropriate experts.
Sincerely yours,
Don’t miss the article on CEA-Leti with the interview of Dr. Simoens, strategic program director of LETI’s Chip-Scale lidar program, who talk on his activities on ADAS and lighting?