In-car radar set for go-ahead as makers tune-in to safety

By Peter Chapman

Date: 23/09/04

A GROUP of Europe's leading car firms is expected to get the green light from governments for in-vehicle radar systems designed to prevent cars smashing into each other on the roads.

The "short-range automotive radar frequency allocation" scheme, code-named SARA, is backed by DaimlerChrysler, Jaguar, Saab, BMW, Fiat and Porsche.

But the plan has been stuck on the starting grid after mobile phone operators, weather forecasters and astronomers claimed the radars might wreak havoc with their own networks. Telecom operators said the systems could also interfere with their own networks, running alongside roads.

However, European Commission officials said a compromise deal is now expected to be given the go-ahead on 29 September by the EU's radio spectrum committee - a body comprising national officials and the Commission.

"We hope that everything will be signed, sealed and delivered by the end of the year," added Gerry Oberst, a partner with US firm Hogan and Hartson, advising the SARA consortium.

The technology is expected to be fitted into cars as an added option, for several hundred euro, and would help prevent frontal collisions by overriding the driver and slowing down the car when it is dangerously close to another vehicle.

Under the compromise deal, car companies would only be able to sell the agreed systems until 2013 - and a maximum of 7% of cars in the EU would be equipped with the radar.

Moreover, the spectrum committee will also demand extra safeguards to ensure the radar cannot harm the collection of data at space observatories.

Stargazers want car firms to build-in an automatic switch-off from the radar when cars are close to the observatories.

Oberst said manufacturers opposed the plan, claiming it would add to the cost of a product meant to cut down on road deaths.

But an aide to Olli Rehn, the acting commissioner for enterprise, said firms are likely to be given extra time - up to two years - to introduce the auto switch-off technology on their new models.

The radar was given political backing from Rehn's predecessor and compatriot, Erkki Liikanen. The Finn launched a road safety campaign last Autumn with Max Mosley, the Formula One motor racing supremo, which made a virtue of the radar devices.

The EU can decide binding rules for 25 member states. But experts said the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), a group of telecom experts from 46 nations, has led technical discussions on the issue and is also expected to back the scheme at a meeting in November.

CEPT's members are drawn from the EU and other European nations as well as neighbouring states, such as Turkey.

The systems could have already been installed in new vehicles on sale today. But the plan was stalled after critics lobbied national authorities, citing the interference that thousands of cars using the system would cause.

France had voiced most concerns over the issue.

EUMETNET, which represents EU weather forecasters, is based in the country. The meteorologists claimed the radar would clog up the part of the airwaves they use to measure the vertical water vapour content of the atmosphere.

The PSA Group, makers of Peugeot, Citroën and Renault, oppose the scheme, provoking claims that Paris was only rejecting it in order to support its car industry.

Article reports on progress concerning the development of in-vehicle radar systems by large European car manufacturers while there are concerns of interference with other networks, such as those used by mobile phone operators, weather forecasters and astronomers.

CEPT: Homepage http://www.cept.org/

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