Paradigm Neutrality vs. Technology Neutrality – A New Approach to Old Beliefs

The concept of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) has a long history in the EU and other major regions, both technologically and regulatorily. Later, the term C‑ITS emerged to describe cooperation between vehicles and infrastructure. Over time, the EU has shaped this field through Directives and Delegated Regulations, while expanding ITS objectives beyond vehicle safety to include traffic flow, sustainability, equity, liveability, and energy efficiency. These priorities are reflected in the updated Directive (EU) 2023/2661 and in supporting technical specifications such as RTTI and SRTI, as well as in stronger coordination among DG MOVE, CNECT, and GROW.

In the three decades since ITS work began, the (technological) world around the ITS domain has changed significantly. New technical approaches have accelerated progress: the smartphone era (starting in 2007) enabled widespread cellular connectivity, greater data availability, affordable sensors, and lower‑latency communication. Advances in silicon and AI have markedly improved vehicle sensor capabilities—from cameras to radar/LIDAR and computer vision—while cloud backends have become essential for processing large data volumes and enabling modern AI-driven services.

The paper identifies three fundamentally different but complementary paradigms for enabling cooperative transport systems: Sensor-based (onboard and roadside perception with immediate local benefit) Backend-based (cloud-mediated data aggregation, fusion, and distribution over cellular networks) Direct communication (short-range, low-latency peer-to-peer exchange) Each paradigm has different cost structures, scalability, security models, and timelines. The central insight is that forcing all use cases into the direct-communication paradigm destroys value and delays impact.