UNECE’s work on road safety and harmonized vehicle regulations was prominently featured during a week of engagements in China on safe, sustainable, and smart mobility.
Launch of the UN Global Road Safety Campaign in China
On 20 October, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt launched the UN-JCDecaux Global Campaign for Road Safety. Read the press release here
Autonomous Driving at the center of debates at 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference
On 21 October, the Special Envoy and UNECE Deputy Executive Secretary Dmitry Mariyasin addressed the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference (WICV) in Beijing. Mr. Mariyasin highlighted that 2026 marks a milestone with the adoption of the international regulatory framework for automated driving systems, noting that “China has been at the heart of this journey” and emphasizing the willingness of UNECE to continue this work with all international partners.
Mr. Todt emphasized that technological progress must be matched by rigorous safety standards and international cooperation. Mr Richard Damm, Chair of the Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) shared experience in ADS developments and implementation.
Global dialogue on Regulatory Harmonization and regional perspectives
The WICV 2026 session on regulations and standards featured important discussions on the implementation of the international regulatory framework for automated driving systems (ADS) developed by GRVA. The GRVA secretary presented the recent highlights from June 2026, the latest decisions on documents and subgroup structure, and information from the IWG on Safe Use of Automated Vehicles in traffic (SUAT).
Information was shared on ADS implementation in Canada (Andrew Phillips, Transport Canada), the experience of the Netherlands Vehicle Authority in assessing an end-to-end AI system for driving automation (Edwin Nas, RDW) and ADS regulatory developments in the Russian Federation (Andrei Bocharov).
Bill Gouse (SAE International), Richard Kruger (ISO) and Alexander Kuofer (IEC) also presented the most recent standards issued by their respective organisations and stressed the importance of standards in that field.
Global Foreign Experts dialogue
During the week, amongst various other sessions that ran in parallel, China’s Intelligent Connected Vehicles Foreign Experts Advisory Group (FEAG) meeting took place with the participation of Mr. Morokawa, Vice-Chair of GRVA, Francois Guichard, GRVA Secretary and Mr. D. Kay, Co-Chair of the IWG on Intelligent Transport Systems and the Task Force on Vehicular Communication. The exchange focused on the implementation of ADS regulations, the best practices on Software Defined Vehicles and vehicle/infrastructure communications. The meeting was closed by Chen Chunmei, MIIT and GRVA Vice-Chair.
The next GRVA meeting, to be held mid-January 2027, is expected to finalize the guidance and interpretation document for the ADS Regulation.
Photo credit: WICV 2026