Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler Group: “We do need standards; the world needs standards. Standards help an enterprise manage business-critical issues, such as quality, environmental performance, and safety.”

Martin Conrads, head of Information of Services and Standards at Audi: “For Audi, international standards open the worldwide supplier market. Standardized components give our customers remarkable added value, for example, with the ISOFIX child-seat interface.”

Michael Straughan, board member of manufacturing at Bentley Motors: “We were one of the first UK plants to achieve ISO 14001 certification for environmental management, the first in our sector to set out a clear strategy for reducing our impact on the environment, and we are now the first UK automotive plant to certify to the new ISO 50001 energy management standard.”

Hyoung-Keun Lee, vice chairman and CEO at Kia Motors: “If the global automotive industry combined efforts to invigorate current ISO activities, car manufacturers, motorists, and our planet would benefit. Greater cooperation would also lead to an even broader range of car-related technology standards.”

Mikhail Gorbachev, Peace Prize Laureate: “Naturally, we are not trying to put everyone on trams or bicycles in the immediate future, but in my view, there is a clear movement in this direction, and the automotive industry must not fear this. The demand for their products will be maintained in a new framework and under different conditions, and we must prepare for the future, because whether we like it or not, it will come.”

Richard Parry Jones, former vice president of global product development, and chief technical officer at Ford Motor Co.: “To achieve all these benefits to society and customers in terms of emissions, congestion, and safety, we will require International Standards for communications, so that every car can talk to another reliably and securely.”