22. Referring to the discussion (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1093, para. 140) held during the November 2011 session of the Executive Committee of the 1998 Agreement (AC.3), the expert from the United States of America introduced the terms of reference (ToR) of the revised mandate of the informal working group on Quiet Road Transport Vehicles (QRTV) (GRB-55-12-Rev.1). He indicated that his country and Japan had volunteered to ensure the technical sponsorship, with the United States of America chairing the informal working group under GRB. He also informed GRB that the EU was also invited to co-sponsor the UN Global Technical Regulation (UN GTR). Some experts suggested that the terms of reference of the informal working group should have open the possibility to include broad technology solutions if they would be available in the future. Finally, GRB agreed with the Chair’s suggestion that the ToR of the informal working group would cover only GRB expertise and that only AC.3 would eventually revise its mandate. GRB adopted the ToR, as reproduced in Annex II to this report. The GRB Chair expressed his intention to seek the consent of WP.29 and AC.3 at their March 2012 sessions.

23. The Chair of the informal working group on QRTV reported on the conclusions of the last meeting of the informal working group held in Geneva on 6-7 February 2012 and announced that his group’s mandate expired. He introduced the final report of the informal working group including the findings and recommendations with regard to the future development of a UN GTR that would specify the applicability and performance of an Audible Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS). He underlined how audibility requires, inter alia, an alerting signal that contains frequencies different from those of most common ambient noise in order to avoid masking effects. In fact, he added that audibility of QRTV for visually impaired people was critical even in a quiet environment. GRB experts noted some comments. GRB agreed on some amendments to the report of the informal working group that were introduced in its final version (GRB-55-14).

24. GRB agreed to resume discussion of this agenda item at its September 2012 session, and requested the secretariat to distribute GRB-55-14 with an official symbol, awaiting the outcome of the informal working group on QRTV.