GENEVA, March 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- Presentation at Geneva Car Show to Focus On Enabling Safe Web Browsing
While Driving

Now that the World Wide Web is migrating to the car, the
international Connected Vehicle Trade Association (www.connectedvehicle.org)
and connected vehicle services provider ATX Group (www.atxg.com), of
Dusseldorf, are championing an initiative to collaborate on how drivers and
passengers can safely access the Internet.

In a presentation scheduled for 5:30 p.m. CET on March 4, 2009 at
the Fully Networked Car forum held in conjunction with the Geneva Auto Show,
Arnaud de Meulemeester, ATX Europe managing director, will detail the initial
steps toward defining the attributes needed to communicate to in-vehicle
devices. ATX and the CVTA will seek to recruit interested, European entities
to help lead the initiative. ATX, which already enables Web connectivity to
select vehicles in Europe, also advocates the creation of a specific
top-level domain -- ".car" (dot-car) -- to help ensure safe Web browsing in
the vehicle.

CVTA is organizing a working group that will include automakers,
suppliers, technology firms and content providers, for the purpose of
developing a framework that would apply to embedded, in-vehicle and mobile
Internet devices. Some of the issues the group will examine include what kind
of content should be accessible and how it would be displayed; minimization
of driver distraction through the use of speech technology; firewalls,
viruses and other related issues and components of Internet delivery. The
working group is chaired by Paul Thorpe, OSS Nokalva, a leading vendor of
software development toolkits that enable companies to develop
standards-based applications.

"Internet content is beginning to enter the vehicle environment,
and we need to bring together all relevant stakeholders to identify the
safest means of interacting with this content," said Scott McCormick, CVTA
president.

De Meulemeester, an early advocate of the dot-car domain concept,
plans to present Fully Networked Car forum attendees with an overview of the
initiative's goals as well as next steps needed to harmonize at least 12
current initiatives on the issue.

"While the primary focus is to give motorists the ability to surf
the Web in their vehicles, there are other key issues for automakers involved
in the scope of this initiative," noted de Meulemeester. "Beyond meeting
consumer expectations and reducing lead time to deployment, other
considerations include ensuring flexibility of the interface for the life of
the vehicle to customization according to vehicle model, country and driver
type."

ATX entered the European market in 2003 through its acquisition of PASSO,
a unit of Mannesman/Vodafone. Significant achievements of ATX's European
business unit include the development of a unique Web interface with
emergency dispatch centers that adds data to information verbally provided by
ATX response specialists. ATX Europe was also involved in the earliest
developments of delivering Web-based content into the vehicle.

ABOUT ATX:

ATX (www.atxg.com) is one of the world's leading providers of customized,
connected vehicle to global automobile manufacturers. ATX pioneered connected
vehicle services in 1996, and today provides innovative safety, security,
communication, navigation and information services to vehicle owners through
many of world's most distinguished automotive brands, including Toyota,
Lexus, BMW, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars.

ATX also customizes services to help automobile manufacturers and their
affiliated dealerships use telematics data and multiple customer contact
channels to reduce costs, enhance vehicle servicing, and more closely manage
customer relationships and contacts with the vehicle through its lifetime.
ATX operates from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Dusseldorf, Germany.

ATX is a division of Cross Country Automotive Services (
www.crosscountry-auto.com), a leading provider of mobile assistance services
to motorists and enhanced claims management services to automobile insurance
carriers. ATX provides services to drivers in Germany, Austria, France,
Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and
Luxembourg.

ABOUT CVTA:

The Connected Vehicle Trade Association (CVTA) (www.connectedvehicle.org)
is a non-profit business league established to facilitate the interaction,
and advance the interests, of the entities involved in the vehicle
communications environment. The Connected Vehicle Trade Association enables
the collaboration of companies, organizations and governmental bodies engaged
in developing bi-directional vehicle communications. Membership is open to
any corporation, public entity, standards and specification organization,
educational institution or qualified individual.