CRF coordinates the SAFESPOT integrated European project for the development of solutions based on on-board sensors for preventive safety and communication between vehicles and the road infrastructure. The European Commission considers road safety and traffic problems to be of major importance and has therefore decided to provide consistent support for a number of research project addressing the development of technologies and applications based on cooperative systems. Three major projects (SAFESPOT, CVIS and COOPERS) and a swathe of other projects co-financed by the European Commission Information Society and Media are developing the enabling technologies and integrated and interoperable architecture to set up an information exchange network for a future of sustainable mobility based on cooperative systems. The SAFESPOT project, initiated in February 2006 and due to end in June 2010, is promoted by EUCAR and is co-financed by the European Commission (20.5 MEuro); partners include 52 companies from all over Europe. The consortium comprises Magneti Marelli and CSST, many automotive and technology suppliers, road operators, including ANAS, services suppliers and leading research centres. The challenge for the future is to develop technologies for setting up of an interoperable communication network between vehicles and road infrastructure. As communication technology, the SAFESPOT project, in cooperation with the Car-to-Car Consortium, has selected IEEE802.11p as it complies with the stringent specifications of road safety applications. At communication network level, SAFESPOT has developed and tested a communication protocol able to provide basic periodic messages. These geo-referenced messages, sent regularly to the vehicles and road infrastructure, guarantee real-time update and diffusion of information regarding position of the vehicles, their speed, acceleration and other essential information for safety and traffic efficiency. SAFESPOT is participating actively in the work group organized by the COMeSAFETY European project for the setting up of an interoperable European architecture for communication systems. During these years of activity, the SAFESPOT  project has developed the enabling technologies: the ‘Vehicle Ad hoc NETwork’ (VANET) for creation of a dynamic communication network, the Local Dynamic Map (LDM) for update of static navigation maps with essential safety-related information and relative positioning of the vehicles. According to these technological developments, SAFESPOT has designed a set of accident-prevention applications based on interaction between vehicles and the road infrastructure and has integrated these in a number of demo vehicles. These applications have now reached the test phases at the sites of the various European countries involved: Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Germany. SAFESPOT is based on the principle of creating a margin of safety for drivers so as to broaden their ability to perceive the situation of surrounding traffic, combining information returned by vehicle sensors and by the communication network. In future, drivers will be provided promptly with important preventive safety information in order to avoid emergency manoeuvres. As cooperative systems represent a major challenge for the future of sustainable, safe mobility, SAFESPOT is working on drafting of business plans involving all the stakeholders who will participate in introducing these systems on the market. The basic idea is to initiate implementation starting from sensitive areas (the so-called ‘black spots’), i.e. roads where the average rate of accidents is very high. In particular, during 2009, SAFESPOT participated successfully in the demonstrations organized in Holland at Helmond concurrently with the ITS 2009 World Congress held in Stockholm in September.