The agenda includes discussions on protecting vulnerable road users.

The Task Force on Vehicular Communications held its thirteenth session on 23rd January 2026 in Geneva. Presentations on Vulnerable Road Users protection were delivered by Japan, China, and Car2Car, addressing VRU accident analysis, pilot projects, national standardization frameworks, and collective perception approaches. Common themes included sensor limitations, functional safety needs, and harmonized communication standards. The Task Force agreed to continue discussions at its next session.

Presentation on technology and application validation of VRU protection services across three parts. Part 1 validates functional and process validation; Part 2 tests performance under low-density scenarios; Part 3 tests performance under high-density scenarios with three sub-scenarios: sensing multi-VRUs, multi-services concurrency, and multi-VRUs transmitting PSMs concurrently. Validation encompasses three communication approaches: vehicle-to-vehicle, infrastructure-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-pedestrian, assessing protocol conformance, communication performance, sensing performance, and service logic triggering mechanisms.

SAE J3224 supports vehicle-based V2X sensor sharing via SDSM. SAE J3224/1 describes infrastructure-based detection and sharing of VRU information, with final approval in Motor Vehicle Council balloting and publication planned for August 2026. SAE J3251 specifies OBU device requirements for CDA-equipped vehicles and wheeled VRU types, with publication targeted for Q3 2027. SAE J5001 on PSM communications is on hold due to spectrum limitations and market adoption issues.