Topic Group XXII on Dynamic Vehicle Characteristics

EReg Topic Group XXI (on the harmonisation of registration procedures and data quality) finalised its report on vehicle modifications in June of 2021. During the meetings of TG XXI the question arose how the different EReg Members keep their vehicle registration up-to-date when a vehicle is modified. The Topic Group sent out a questionnaire to get insight into how different members deal with vehicle modifications. One of the recommendations was to start a new Topic Group on how to deal with software updates.

Vehicle data is becoming more and more dynamic and developments in the vehicle branche (innovations and regulations) lead to questions about how to deal with this dynamic data in relation to vehicle registration. More dynamic data needs to be stored in the vehicle registration and this data needs to be obtained from several sources. Examples of this are software versions , e-ink technology (colour change), or the use of ADS systems.

When looking at software updates, UNECE regulations R155 and R156 regulate the development and deployment of upgrades of vehicle software. However, there is still no clear obligation for the OEMs to register in what vehicles which software components actually have been upgraded. It is necessary to get attention for the consequences of software updates for the driving characteristics of vehicles and their impact on other data, for example environment-related data like emissions. The importance of software updates will increase dramatically in the next few years. Therefore it is time for the EReg members to start thinking about the registration of software versions and any updates and to share experiences and best practices with each other. This is not only true for the impact of software updates, but it is necessary to look at broader impact of use cases that involve  dynamic vehicle characteristics.

The main questions are:

• do registration authorities (need to) register these dynamic data in the vehicle registers?
• what requirements must be set for the delivery of this data.

This topic group will further look into that, taking software updates as the first use case.