Worldwide standards and their impact on seamless integration

Using primarily the European and North American heavy duty engine and on-highway vehicle portion of the market, this paper gives an overview of some of the many relevant standard-setting organizations and how they impact the development and integration of electronics. The discussion is directly applicable to the other geographical areas, e.g. Asia, and other market segments, e.g. rail and marine. Products designed for these markets have requirements obtained from standards which may be driven by government regulations, voluntary industry groups, company practices and end-user organizations. The types of standards referred to include electromagnetic compatibility, data links, labeling, electrical harnessing, diagnostics and exhaust emissions. The incentives for having these types of standards are the desire to have safe operation, environmentally friendly solutions, level playing fields for all competitors and, unarguably the most important, higher quality products for the consumer.