Smart mobility in focus at the Future Networked Car Symposium
By ITU News
The Future Networked Car Symposium, being held for the first time in Doha, Qatar, will examine the latest advances in automated driving, vehicle connectivity and automotive cybersecurity, sharing expert insight on associated implications for technology, business, and regulation. Register to participate online.
The symposium is convened by ITU, the UN specialized agency for information and communication technologies, and UNECE, the UN commission responsible for global vehicle regulations. It moves to Doha together with the Geneva International Motor Show, with support from the Communications Regulatory Authority of Qatar.
The one-day symposium on 6 October will focus on opportunities and challenges for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Discussions will highlight the best practices, standards and vehicle inspection procedures required to assure buyers of networked cars about safety and cybersecurity. Emphasis will also be placed on regulatory and policy frameworks to support the high-tech evolution of the automotive industry, especially in relation to automated driving.
Latest tech developments
Automotive artificial intelligence (AI) to enable automated driving is a key point of discussion.
Experts will look at the state of the art in automated driving software developed using AI – software that would replace or supplement human driving capabilities to improve road safety and optimize transport management.
Discussions will also explore where we stand with 5G, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, sharing views on the actions required to stimulate the widespread introduction of vehicle safety communications using V2V.
Automotive cybersecurity discussions will highlight the latest techniques to achieve secure communication, data privacy, and protection against cyber-attacks.
How ITU and UNECE support automotive innovation
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) provides a global regulatory structure on vehicles and road traffic, while the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) supports global advances in digital technology. A long-standing partnership between the two UN agencies helps ITU in developing international technical standards that are aligned with the priorities of vehicle regulators.
ITU standards provide for high-security and high-quality vehicular communications, such as for secure over-the-air software updates to connected vehicles and voice-quality performance for vehicle emergency calls.
A new ITU standard – currently under development based on the work of the ITU focus group on AI for autonomous and assisted driving active from 2019 to 2022 – will provide an ‘automated-driving safety data protocol’ for self-driving cars to communicate key data, enabling continuous monitoring of vehicle behaviour and performance.
Most recently, the ITU-led Collaboration on Intelligent Transport System Communication Standards – where all standards bodies relevant to intelligent transport are represented – established a new expert group on communications technology for automated driving. One of its key objectives is to enable reliable automated lane merging, which remains a major challenge worldwide.
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