Despite a low attendance resulting from the severe economic climate being experienced by the automobile industry, 52 experts from Japan, America, South Africa, and Europe participated in the week-long session in Paris starting May 11, 2009. As usual, the first half of the week was devoted to working group meetings after which the plenary session (Committee of Experts) reviewed the proposals submitted by the delegations and working groups to decide whether they were sufficiently mature for submission to the 62nd GRE session in October 2009.
The Head-Delegates meeting devoted a complete afternoon to discuss Geoff Draper’s ideas, as the incoming president working closely with vice president Terburg and secretary Puglisi, for adjusting the organisation in order to improve its efficiency and quality of support to the UNECE process via GRE and to respond to the changing conditions of industry and technology.
At the opening of the plenary session Davide Puglisi, GTB secretary, reviewed the outcome of the GTB proposals to the last GRE meeting. The GRE experts approved 18 GTB proposals that will be submitted for adoption at the WP29 November 2009 session.
Included in these proposals were amendments to ECE R37 to introduce new light source categories H16 and PS(X) 26W, the introduction of LED modules in ECE R113 for two wheeled vehicles and revisions to the photometric requirements in ECE Regulations 6 and 7. The extensive work to improve and clarify the requirements relating to the apparent surface definition in Regulation 48 was also accepted and it was generally considered to be a significant improvement to ensure that the installation issues associated with the new light source and device technologies can be correctly managed.
Next week, Driving Vision News will present the 3 GTB proposals considered at Paris and the works of Light Source working group.
