A foot in the ITS door

This story first appeared in the February issue of EVtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

A common saying in our industry, and perhaps others, is that “New Zealand is a standards taker, not a standards maker”.

The rationale behind it is obvious; with such a small market and no domestic manufacturing, how can we force manufacturers elsewhere to comply with any standards we might make?

Instead, until recently, we have simply identified the international standards we can live with and allowed imported goods only from jurisdictions that enforce these.

For the most part, it has worked for us – the variety of options has empowered competition, benefiting consumers by pushing down prices.
Intelligent transport systems (ITS) offer an interesting problem. Since each of the major source jurisdictions (European Union, United States, Japan and China) are implementing their own ITS standards, it is likely New Zealand will end up with technology from all of them.

A myriad of technologies never designed to work together will be on our roads, on our waters and in our airspace.

Taking full advantage of them will require figuring out how to make them play well together – alongside whatever unique solutions we implement for New Zealand.

At VIA, we often classify technology as fitting into one of three categories:

Compatible technology – which can be both safely imported and taken advantage of (examples include automatic emergency braking, mandated by other jurisdictions).
Not compatible – meaning technology that can be safely imported but cannot currently be taken advantage of (an example is VICs, an e-payment system used in Japan).

Incompatible – technology that is both disruptive to New Zealand’s infrastructure and cannot currently be of advantage (ITS Connect operating on 760 MHz, currently being developed in Japan, is an example).

Not compatible technology is very common in our imports. We’re not getting any extra value from it but there is no real objection to importing it if other benefits exist.

With incompatible technologies we have three options; we either avoid them (and miss out on other potential benefits), we adapt our domestic infrastructure to be compatible, or we work to change the technology at the source.

The last option is where the real opportunity lies. By participating in the creation of international standards, and perhaps even international regulations, we can advocate for New Zealand’s situation.

Through education, we can promote New Zealand interests and encourage the development of technology that will work for us.
As well as an exciting opportunity to help influence global research and development, it also gives us a chance to stay aware of upcoming technologies and engage our Government to ensure compatibility through reasonable regulation.

Maybe just as importantly, early involvement gives us an opportunity to present New Zealand solutions, potentially showcasing Kiwi companies.
One place where we are already participating is with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) in their Technical Committee 204, the group tasked with developing international ITS standards.

I am an expert in Working Group 3, working on the data and mapping necessary for automated driving technologies.

Discussion in my working group is dominated by the interests of SIP-adus, a Japanese government-led initiative to develop autonomous vehicles.

Considering that such a large portion of New Zealand’s fleet is made up of vehicles from Japan, it’s significant that they are now able to take New Zealand’s situation into account as they develop the technology.
Of course, neither the Americans nor the Europeans intend to use the Japanese solution, nor are they co-operating with each other.

Each jurisdiction represents its domestic manufacturers and the interests of its respective states. This allows us to continue New Zealand’s time-honoured tradition as a neutral, honest broker, while contributing constructively.

The risk of not participating is obvious. Consider the 760MHz issue. If New Zealand had been more active in standards development years ago, we could probably have secured a small segment of the 760MHz band in New Zealand for transport safety, as has been done in Japan.

That would have avoided the problems we face now and empowered us to take fuller advantage of developing safety technologies.

With the ease of communication the digital world brings, New Zealand no longer suffers the “tyranny of distance”.
There is a real place for Kiwi “number 8 wire” ingenuity in the global disharmony of ITS solutions.