European Commission’s project “Intelligent Car”

We are all very dependent on transport in our everyday life. However, we are witnessing a constantly increasing traffic on the road, which is the cause of many social problems: traffic congestion in large cities (detrimental to health and the environment), enormous energy consumption and numerous traffic accidents. Over 40 000 people in Europe die each year due to road accidents.

Fortunately, advanced information and communication technologies can now be embedded in the board system of the intelligent vehicle, thus offering new solutions to today’s transport. These hi-tech systems have anh enormous potential to:

- help drivers to prevent road accidents
- reduce the frequency of road accidents
- provide drivers with real-time traffic, thereby helping to reduce congestion
- identify the most effective route for each trip
- optimize the engine performance, thus improving energy efficiency.

If intelligent car systems are so beneficial, why they are still not a part of every car?
The European Commission met a number of obstacles for the implementation of this life-saving technology.
So, in February 2006., The EC launched the “Intelligent Car” initiative, in order to eliminate all the barriers to the introduction of the system and the development of smarter, safer and cleaner transport in Europe.

The Intelligent car “will accelerate the introduction of intelligent vehicle systems for European and international markets by offering a mix of policy, research and communication tools to ensure cooperation between EU countries and to harmonize the technical solutions with an effective European approach.