Between 1997 and 2007, advances in communication technology and on-board vehicle electronics set the stage for a giant leap forward in automobile communicative capability, namely the transition from autonomous units to communicating, highly-interactive systems that share intelligence with each other and their environment. Making the vehicle and its occupants an integral part of the information society will allow the easing of existing tension between the vehicle and its environment, and help to lift the automotive experience as well as overall mobility to unprecedented levels.

GST is a major initiative mobilising more than 50 key stakeholders in the European telematics industry. The purpose of GST is to create an environment in which innovative telematics services can be developed and delivered cost-effectively, and hence, to increase the range of economic telematic services available to manufacturers and consumers. GST has developed an open and standardised framework architecture for end to end telematics. The openness relates to the existence of a common mechanism for the installation, updating, and removal of new services and applications. These standards are necessary for the key interfaces which allow the complexity and heterogeneousness of the supporting technologies to be hidden.