Opening remarks - ITU-UNECE Symposium on the Future Networked Car 2018

Opening remarks -  ITU-UNECE Symposium on the Future Networked Car 2018

8 March 2018, Palexpo, Geneva

Distinguished colleagues and friends,

Good morning and on behalf of ITU welcome to this Symposium on the Future Networked Car.

Let me begin by thanking our co-organizer, UNECE and its Director of Sustainable Transport Division, Yuwei Li for being here with us.

This is the thirteenth FNC and the fifth we have co-organised with UNECE. Over these years the ITU and UNECE communities have come to enjoy very productive collaboration, together with the industry.

I am pleased to welcome again Jean Todt, President of FIA and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety. This is the third time that I have had that pleasure and thank you Jean for the unique perspective that you bring to this event. We look forward to your keynote address.

I would also like to thank the kind sponsors of this year’s symposium, silver sponsor DEKRA, and bronze sponsors Qualcomm and Green Hills Software. Your support is highly appreciated.

We are very grateful to Palexpo and the Geneva Motor Show for supporting this event every year for the last 13 years. Much has changed over those years and the collaboration between the ICT sector and the automotive sector has increased greatly during that time. I believe this event has helped that collaboration develop.

The symposium provides a venue for ICT and automotive experts to learn from one another and explore new opportunities to improve their collaboration.

This year we will discuss the importance of 5G to automotive innovation; the key challenges to be overcome in cybersecurity and data protection; and the role to be played by artificial intelligence and machine learning in future transport systems.

ITU with its unique membership of 193 Member States, over 500 private sector entities, and around 130 universities, can help in the critical areas of radio frequency spectrum and international standards. The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference next year will decide on the globally harmonized spectrum allocations for 5G and other services to meet the ever-growing demand for digital data. The conference will be essential to ensure that the spectrum needs for the automotive industry are met and that the various services that will utilize 5G’s ultra-high reliability and low-latency capabilities will be protected from interference. It is only through ITU’s coordination of the global allocation of radiofrequency spectrum and satellite orbits that devices can operate interference free worldwide. ITU’s international standards enable interconnection and interoperability and reduce costs through the economies of scale.

ITU has already allocated spectrum in the 79 GHz frequency band to automotive radar and ITU standards specify the requirements for radiocommunication between cars and infrastructure. Other ITU standards define the tests to assess and improve the performance of mobile phones’ hands-free use in the vehicles, and last year a new ITU standard was adopted to support secure over-the-air software updates to connected vehicles. ITU’s expert group on security is working on a number of standards related to the security of the connection to cars.

The new UNECE global regulation for vehicle emergency calls references the ITU voice-quality performance standard, and ITU is an active contributor to the UNECE Task Force on Over-the-Air Issues which is developing mitigation techniques to 18 identified security threats. 

As a UN agency much of ITU’s work relates to the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development agenda, with its 17 goals and 169 targets, one of which is to halve the number of deaths and injuries on the road by 2020. Clearly this will only be achieved by using smart transport management techniques, including collision avoidance radar and autonomous vehicles.

ITU aims to be a valuable platform to drive the ICT innovation to achieve this goal, and I am sure today’s discussions will provide further guidance on how ITU can best support the automotive industry in achieving its ICT ambitions.

I would like to thank our programme steering committee for arranging an excellent line-up of speakers, and I thank the speakers and moderators for their contribution.

Let me also thank all of you the participants. As always, we appreciate your support and look forward to your contribution to the discussion.

I wish you all a most enjoyable and productive symposium.

Thank you.