Washington, D.C. Auto Show President and Chief Executive Officer John O’Donnell, speaking at the China-U.S. Automotive Summit before the Beijing Motor Show, said the lack of consistent standards for autonomous vehicles has hampered development and that immediate action is needed to ensure that self-driving technology moves forward both safely and quickly around the world.

O’Donnel proposed the creation of a worldwide advocacy group comprised of members from six major auto making countries. He recommended the group be named the Global Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Organization, or GAVEO (pronounced gah-vay-oh), which would create and promote the use of a single set of engineering standards to be used by autonomous vehicle manufacturers worldwide.

“The time for GAVEO is now, while the autonomous industry is still in its relative infancy,” O’Donnell said. “Standardization will make vehicles safer and greatly benefit the consumers who will eventually buy, own and operate self-driving vehicles, while creating stability for automakers, technology companies, and government leaders around the world,” he told the conference.

O’Donnell said the organization should include a multinational board of engineers from countries where major automakers are headquartered including China, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the mission of creating a single set of engineering standards for autonomous vehicles worldwide. Countries could then use the standards to create regulations appropriate to their requirements.

O’Donnell noted that such global organizations are common in other areas of technology to create worldwide standards.