A UN work program put software update identification numbers on a 2027 timetable

A revised secretariat note listing the subjects under consideration by the World Forum’s Working Party on General Safety Provisions carries a priority row for software update identification, with dates attached. The document was posted to the United Nations October document directory while the working party’s 132nd session was sitting in Geneva, from September 28 to October 2.

The row reads: software update (RXSWIN), under the 1958 Agreement or the consolidated resolution on vehicle construction, working document GRSG/2026/44, led by interested parties, carrying April 2027 and November 2027, and recorded in the comment column as coordinated with the international whole vehicle type approval scheme. The row does not say which body takes which date: its working party cell is empty, April 2027 falls in the World Forum column and November 2027 in the initiator column, which every other row uses for a country or group. Other priority rows pair a working party date with a World Forum date five to seven months later, and two carry no World Forum date at all. RXSWIN is the software identification number defined by UN R156, the software update regulation.

The same priority table dates several event data recorder workstreams. A second step covering vulnerable road user triggering, recording frequency and data elements is timed for October 2026 and March 2027. Performance elements for automated driving systems, handled with the automated vehicle working party and the informal group on event recorders, run to October 2027 and March 2028; a third step to April and November 2029.

Other rows cover e-trailers, a United Kingdom task force on UN R58, and a China-Germany door opening warning task force.

Nothing in the document has been agreed. A secretariat note records what is tabled and on what timetable; the session report that records decisions had not been published.