Liikanen calls for wider demonstration of vehicle safety research results
EU Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society Erkki Liikanen has called for new vehicle safety technology to be more widely deployed in the marketplace. Speaking at an international symposium on sophisticated car occupant safety systems in Karlsruhe on 4 December, Mr Liikanen outlined the technological developments which have already been made in the field of vehicle safety, and particularly in intelligent integrated safety systems. Research projects have already demonstrated the contribution that such technologies could make, but the results are not reaching a large enough audience, according to the Commissioner. 'We have to admit to ourselves that to realise the full benefits, the new systems have to be widely deployed in the marketplace. That is a key element. It is only when a significant number of vehicles on the road are fitted with these advanced technologies that we will achieve a critical 'system effect',' said Mr Liikanen. 'Unfortunately in may cases there is still a large gap between technology development and its deployment at a reasonable cost,' added the Commissioner, who called for a 'realistic approach with a balance between technology and economics.' Mr Liikanen was, however, confident that costs will decrease as production based on information technology and the production of cars are both characterised by economies of scale. The Commissioner is reluctant to enforce new safety provisions through legislation as 'these new technologies are moving so fast that in most cases, legislation would be too restrictive and soon become obsolete.' The Information Society Technologies (IST) programme of the Fifth Framework Programme funded a large number of research projects on intelligent safety and advanced driver assistance systems. The Intelligent Vehicle cluster brings together over 40 projects with a total budget of over 150 million euro. Research in these fields will continue under the Sixth Framework Programme. In the year 2000, road accidents killed over 40,000 people in the EU, and injured almost two million. Research has led to a reduction in the number of fatalities on European roads, despite an increase in the volume of traffic. The number of people injured has, however, increased. In September 2001, the Commission published its White Paper on European Transport Policy for 2010. A target of a 50 per cent reduction in the number of fatalities by 2010 was set in the paper. 'We have to go forward, not only reducing the fatalities further, but also reducing the number of accidents,' said Mr Liikanen.