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The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has announced a cooperation agreement to formally explore MirrorLink, created by the Consortium, as an official ETSI Technical Specification.

ETSI's standards underline much of the most widely used and popular technologies in the world, including electronic signatures, smart cards, DECT and GSM. It has brought together car industry stakeholders to form its intelligent transport systems (ITS) technical committee in order to address connected cars.

The ITS committee is leading the drive for achieving global standards for cooperative ITS, which has significant potential through vehicle-to-roadside and vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Two of the committee's standards have already been published as European standards.

MirrorLink is a connected car technology that brings smartphone content to the car's dashboard, adding large icons and smart technology that can identify if a car is in motion or is parked. It is designed for interoperability with various cars and smartphones, and is the only OEM- and OS-agnostic technology without a single entity holding a controlling stake.

Luis Jorge Romero, Director-General of ETSI, said: "MirrorLink's capacity to increase safety on today’s roads by safely connecting smartphone apps and vehicles makes it a compelling candidate for ETSI’s portfolio of standards. MirrorLink is also in line with ETSI's mission to remain on the forefront of future technologies and to improve life for the next generation of world citizens."

Alan Ewing, President and Executive Director of the CCC, said: "The CCC is very pleased to enter a co-operation agreement with ETSI because it serves as important validation for MirrorLink's wide-reaching car tech capabilities.

“With millions of MirrorLink-enabled handsets and vehicles already in use on European roads alone, the public has demonstrated not only demand for intuitive connected car technologies, but an eagerness to do their part in reducing distracted driving,” he added.