On Wednesday, 8 July 2020, the Director of HIT/CERTH, Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris and the Associate Researcher Ms. Matina Loukea participated in the Hellenic Parliament’s Special Standing Committee on Road Safety, under the chairmanship of the Member of Parliament Mr. X. Kellas. After a prompt presentation of the Institute, Dr. Bekiaris referred to recent statistics regarding the development of road safety and the number of accidents in our country, emphasizing a reduction of this number as a result of the economic crisis, as well as the differences among the the Regions of the country. Indicative examples of the Institute’s research activity in Road Safety were also presented to the members of the Committee.
In his presentation, Dr. Bekiaris emphasized the fact that emerging technologies of Transport Telematics and Autonomous Driving can only resolve but also potentially cause road safety problems. In this extend he mentioned the case of Electric Scooters, presenting their benefits and problems, as well as the accompanying need for developing relevant legislation, while in addition the issue of Autonomous Vehicles was presented by Dr. E. Bekiaris, highlighting the need to update the current Greek legislation, in order to allow the pilot operation and assist the further development of this technology in Greece. Finally, proposals were presented for the legislative support of HIT’s research actions, including issues like the exceptional driving of vehicles by individuals aimed on research experiments and studies, as well as the possibility of issuing test plates for the Institute.

After the presentation of Dr. Bekiaris, questions were asked, followed by a discussion with the members of the Committee, who, after expressing their satisfaction with the great work of the Institute and the topics presented, also expressed their intention to provide their support to the Institute’s research activities .