The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and integration among its member states.
A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, headlamp is the term for the device itself and headlight is the term for the beam of light produced and distributed by the device.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation, focused on transportation safety in the United States.
The color amber is a pure chroma color, located on the color wheel midway between the colors of yellow and orange. The color name is derived from the material also known as amber, which is commonly found in a range of yellow-orange-brown-red colors; likewise, as a color, amber can refer to a range of yellow-orange colors. In English, the first recorded use of the term as a color name, rather than a reference to the specific substance, was in 1500.
The New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) was a driving cycle, last updated in 1997, designed to assess the emission levels of car engines and fuel economy in passenger cars. It is also referred to as MVEG cycle.
A daytime running lamp is an automotive lighting and bicycle lighting device on the front of a road going motor vehicle or bicycle. It is automatically switched on when the vehicle's handbrake has been pulled down, when the vehicle is in gear, or when the engine is started, emitting white, yellow, or amber light. Their intended use is not to help the driver see the road or their surroundings, but to help other road users identify an active vehicle.
A motor vehicle has lighting and signaling devices mounted to or integrated into its front, rear, sides, and, in some cases, top. Various devices have the dual function of illuminating the road ahead for the driver, and making the vehicle visible to others, with indications to them of turning, slowing or stopping, etc., with lights also indicating the size of some large vehicles.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 regulates all automotive lighting, signalling and reflective devices in the United States. Like all other Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, FMVSS 108 is administered by the United States Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Type approval or certificate of conformity is granted to a product that meets a minimum set of regulatory, technical and safety requirements. Generally, type approval is required before a product is allowed to be sold in a particular country, so the requirements for a given product will vary around the world. Processes and certifications known as type approval in English are often called homologation, or some cognate expression, in other European languages.
Selective yellow is a colour for automotive lamps, particularly headlamps and other road-illumination lamps such as fog lamps. Under ECE regulations, headlamps were formerly permitted to be either white or selective yellow—in France, selective yellow was mandatory for all vehicles' road-illumination lamps until 1993.
A trade restriction is an artificial restriction on the trade of goods and/or services between two or more countries. It is the byproduct of protectionism. However, the term is controversial because what one part may see as a trade restriction another may see as a way to protect consumers from inferior, harmful or dangerous products.
Brake assist or emergency brake assist (EBA) is a term for an automobile braking technology that increases braking pressure in an emergency. The first application was developed jointly by Daimler-Benz and TRW/LucasVarity. Research conducted in 1992 at the Mercedes-Benz driving simulator in Berlin revealed that more than 90% of drivers fail to brake with enough force when faced with an emergency.
A side-view mirror, also known as a door mirror and often called a wing mirror, is a mirror placed on the exterior of motor vehicles for the purposes of helping the driver see areas behind and to the sides of the vehicle, outside the driver's peripheral vision.
Vehicle regulations are requirements that automobiles must satisfy in order to be approved for sale or use in a particular country or region. They are usually mandated by legislation, and administered by a government body. The regulations concern aspects such as lighting, controls, crashworthiness, environment protection and theft protection, and might include safety belts or automated features.
Government regulation in the automotive industry directly affects the way cars look, how their components are designed, the safety features that are included, and the overall performance of any given vehicle. As a result, these regulations also have a significant effect on the automotive business by generally increasing production costs while also placing limitations on how cars are sold and marketed. Automotive regulations are designed to benefit the consumer and protect the environment, and automakers can face stiff fines and other penalties if they are not followed.
Japanese used vehicle exporting is a grey market international trade involving the export of used cars and other vehicles from Japan to other markets around the world since the 1980s.
The Australian Design Rules (ADRs) are Australia's national technical regulations for vehicle safety, theft resistance, and emissions. All new road vehicles manufactured in Australia and imported new or second-hand vehicles, must comply with the relevant ADRs when they are first supplied to the Australian market. The relevant State or Territory government legislation generally requires that it complies with the relevant ADRs as at the time of manufacture. The ADRs are largely based on and actively harmonised with the UN vehicle and equipment regulations. An ADR may directly specify technical and performance requirements, as well as allow alternative standards to be met instead. The alternative standards are typically the same UNECE regulations as those directly specified. Most ADRs have been fully harmonised with UNECE regulations, meaning that a manufacturer only needs to provide evidence of a UNECE approval, or a valid test to the requirements of a regulation, in order to demonstrate compliance with an ADR. Those ADRs that are only partially harmonised with UNECE Regulations require additional Australian requirements that must also be met. Where an ADR is harmonised, the base text of the UNECE regulation forms the main text of the ADR.
Motor vehicle type approval is the method by which motor vehicles, vehicle trailers and systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles achieve type approval in the European Union (EU) or in other UN-ECE member states. There is no EU approval body: authorized approval bodies of member states are responsible for type approval, which will be accepted in all member states.
The Worldwide Harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) is a global driving cycle standard for determining the levels of pollutants, CO2 emission standards and fuel consumption of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid automobiles, as well as the all-electric range of plug-in electric vehicles.
Automated lane keeping systems (ALKS), also described as traffic jam chauffeurs, is an autonomous driving system that doesn't require driver supervision on motorways. ALKS is an international standard set out in UN-ECE regulation 157 and amounts to Level 3 vehicle automation. It is essentially a more robust combination of adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane centering assist (LCA). When activated, it allows the driver to do non-driving tasks until alerted otherwise.
Antonio Erario (2021-)
