Pursuant to interpretation issues raised by Germany at the seventy-fifth session of GRE, a Task Force on Sequential Activaton was established to clarify the meaning of the “one continuous line” requirement in paragraph 5.6.(c) of Regulation No. 6. The task force proposes to clarify the type definition and reduce the need for dividing sequential direction indicators into different types. This proposal revises the text to be more technology-neutral, removing specifications on how light sources are activated to focus on the visual performance as sequential lighting. The amendment of sub-paragraph 5.6.(c) of UN R6 clarifies what kind of vertical movement is not allowed in the sequential direction indicators, proposing a new new term “vertical oscillations” instead of the current wording “repeating alternation in the vertical direction”. The meaning is that not more than one change of direction upwards or downwards along the vertical axis is possible. The “continuous signal” is also defined in sub-paragraph 5.6.(c) of Regulation No. 6. The allowed distance between adjacent or tangential distinct parts has yet to be defined. TF-SA could not find a consensus about the distance (in mm) before the deadline for submitting official working documents to the seventy-sixth session of GRE. Thus, the value is still marked between square brackets, leaving the final decision to GRE. Before the seventy-sixth session of GRE, TF-SA experts are going to investigate what the suitable value would be. The idea of TF-SA is that the sequential direction indicator should produce a visually clear and continuous signal when viewed by an observer from a 10 m distance. The same amendments as in paragraph 5.6. of the UN R6 are also proposed to paragraph 6.8. of Regulation No. 50 for L-category vehicles. Unlike paragraph 1.3. of Regulation No. 6, paragraph 2.2. of Regulation No. 50 does not define the sequential activation as a type differentiation criterion. Therefore, amendments to paragraph 2.2. of Regulation No. 50 are not necessary.

22. On behalf of the Task Force on Sequential Activation (TF-SA), the expert from Finland reported on its activities and proposed to clarify the requirements for direction indicators with sequential activation in Regulations Nos. 6 and 50 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRE/2016/20 and GRE-76-10). The proposals received written comments from the experts of France, India and OICA (GRE-76-05, GRE-76-09 and GRE-76-16). Following an extensive discussion, GRE adopted the amended proposals, as laid down in Annex IV. At the same time, GRE was not in a position to reach consensus on whether or not the proposals would require a new series of amendments and/or transitional provisions. GRE decided to come back to this issue at the next session in April 2017. Meanwhile, the secretariat was requested to issue the adopted text (Annex IV) as a document for the June 2017 session of WP.29, upon the understanding that any possible amendments, to be decided by GRE in April 2017, could exceptionally be submitted to WP.29 as a corrigendum or addendum to this document.

26. GRE noted that the proposal to clarify the requirements for direction indicators with sequential activation (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRE/2016/20) was considered in conjunction with Regulation No. 6 (para. 22 above).