More than 200 automotive experts participated in the 5th China Annual Conference and Exhibition on ITS 11-13 December 2009 in Shenzhen, China.
FIA Foundation were present with a stand at the parallel running exhibition in cooperation with eSafetyAware, Bosch and Continental. Bosch and Continental also provided cars for an outdoor ESC demonstration which ran over the three days where participants could experience a double lane change test with and without ESC activated.
The Chinese "ChooseESC!" campaign was launched by the Chinese Ministry of Transport, FASC, ITS China, the FIA Foundation and eSafetyAware in Beijing in April 2009, aiming to raise awareness of life saving vehicle technologies like ESC towards Chinese consumers and authorities. The ESC installation rate for China is only around 10% which is half of the rate for Korea and five times less than in Europe. Increasing the deployment of ESC could save many lives in a country where more than 100.000 people die on the roads each year.
The FIA Foundation stand at the exhibition made use of a new ESC simulator from Bosch showing the benefits of both ESC and ABS. This simulator has been produced for markets where the ABS installation rates are still low.
Mr Jacob Bangsgaard, Director of International Relations of FIA Foundation presented the progress of global eSafety deployment at the conference. At the end of the conference a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ITS China and the FIA Foundation to further boost the deployment support for eSafety on the Chinese market. More activities will be launched in the near future to raise awareness of eSafety benefits.