137. The Secretary presented GRVA-11-26, a publication (brochure) that UNECE would publish within the next months, dealing to technological developments and governmental responses at international level, related to ADAS and ADS. The expert from France asked whether the publication could be also published in French.

138. GRVA welcomed the draft publication of UNECE “all you need to know about Automated Vehicles” and agreed that delegations should send comments until 15 October 2021.

139. The Chair informed GRVA that he had been invited to attend the WP.1 session in the week before. He explained that the Chair of WP.1 invited GRVA to consider the organization of a joint event with WP.1 in 2022, to engage the road safety community to share views and experience on the recent rapid technological advancements. He also explained that WP.1 commented on the excessive speed of delivery of GRVA. He reported that he explained the step-by-step approach chosen by GRVA, based on the knowledge of its expert groups and that he stated that it was not a suitable approach for GRVA to wait e.g. for five years and then observe how technology develops in the field.

140. The secretariat explained that the work of GRVA was among the items addressed at UNECE, which had the best media coverage.¹

¹ The information unit of UNECE calculated that the media coverage of GRVA’s work during the summer 2022 accounted for 25 per cent of the UNECE media coverage (number of media clippings), which corresponded to two third of the reach of all articles detected by the unit, in terms of outreach.

141. The expert from the United States of America mentioned that WP.1 could learn from the work performed by GRVA. She explained that, instead of a public event, a technical exchange fostering a better mutual understanding. She suggested, if a public event would be organized, that the event would include a technical part and then as public part. The expert from Canada supported this position. He proposed to first clarify the purpose and deliverables of a joint session. The expert from France supported this position. The expert from the Russian Federation suggested technical items for exchange with WP.1. He stressed the inconsistency in terminology between the two groups and the need to address it. The expert from OICA also supported the need to clarify the purpose and the meaning of public event.

142. Upon request, the Secretary recalled the activities of the Executive Task Force on three items, including definitions. He mentioned that the Task Force did not convene since 2019. He mentioned the proposal from the expert from Canada (ECE/TRANS/WP.1/2020/3) to foster collaboration between WP.1 and WP.29, endorsed by GRVA and WP.29. He explained that, in his view, the participation of the GRVA Chair at WP.1 was in line with the spirit of the document.

143. GRVA reacted positively to the offer of WP.1 to organize a combined (public) session in 2022. GRVA agreed that the Chair would consult the Administrative Committee for the Coordination of Work (AC.2) and WP.29 before answering to WP.1.