Beginning in January 2009, under the authority of a bilateral Implementing Arrangement, the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) has been working closely with the European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media to develop coordinated research programs, specifically focusing on cooperative vehicle systems.  Cooperative systems enabling vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications have been selected for this collaboration because of their great potential to contribute to a safer, more energy efficient and environmentally friendly transportation system.  The purpose of this work is to increase the value of each region’s research by creating a joint framework for field operational tests and evaluation tools, by collaborating on cooperative vehicle safety applications research projects, and by working to internationally harmonize cooperative vehicle standards. 

The regions’ commitment was further affirmed in a EU-US Joint Declaration of Intent on Research Cooperation in Cooperative Systems, signed by RITA Administrator Peter Appel and European Commission Deputy Director-General for Information Society and Media Zoran Stančič in Washington, DC, on November 13, 2009.   The goals of the Joint Declaration are to:

• Support, wherever possible, global open standards in order to ensure interoperability of cooperative systems worldwide and to preclude the development and adoption of redundant standards.
• Identify research areas that would benefit from a harmonized approach and that could be addressed by coordinated or joint research.
• Avoid duplication of research efforts.

The work is being accomplished through a Joint Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Technical Task Force and Working Groups, co-led and staffed by representatives of the USDOT and the European Community.  Recommendations made by the Task Force will be considered as part of bilateral ITS research program activities planned for the coming year. The tangible first results of this EU-US collaboration are:

• A policy statement to harmonize standards internationally,
• A plan to conduct collaborative research in cooperative vehicle applications,
• An intent to develop common methodologies to enable the sharing of field-operational-test data.