At the kind invitation of the Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) with the support of National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), a Joint ISO/ITU Workshop on Standards on ITS Communications took place on 24 August 2011 at the Kyoto Research Park, 93, Chudoji Awatacho, Shimogyo-ku Kyoto 600-8815, Kyoto, Japan. On the same day (afternoon), this workshop was followed by the Ad-hoc meeting for ISO/ITU Joint Task Force on ITS Telecommunications Standardization.

Preceding the workshop, on 22-23 August 2011, ITU-T's Focus Group on "Driver Distraction" met at the same venue. In parallel and also at the same venue ISO TC 204 WG 16 ("Wide area communications") met from 22-26 August 2011.

Industry experts who gathered for the recent ISO/ITU/IEC Fully Networked Car event at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011 agreed that the next twenty years will see a huge shift towards ITS. Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communication capabilities will allow vehicles to foresee and avoid collisions, navigate the quickest route to their destination, make use of up-to-the-minute traffic reports, identify the nearest available parking slot, minimize their carbon emissions and provide multimedia communications. Global standards are expected to drive large scale deployment of ITS services and applications.

The aim of this workshop is to provide a platform for ISO and ITU to work towards the creation of a Joint Task Force on ITS Communications and to ensure that the various sectors – automotive, ITS players, telecom suppliers and operators – pool resources, link existing work, avoid duplication and arrive at global ITS standards.

The event is intended for the automotive sector, ITS players as well as telecom suppliers and operators.