The international Experimental Safety Vehicles Program (ESV) originated under NATO's Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society and was implemented through bilateral Memoranda of Understanding between the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) and the governments of France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan and Sweden. Participation in the programme has expanded over the years and now includes Australia, Canada, Hungary, Poland, Korea and two international organizations - the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC) and the European Commission (EC). The participating nations agreed to develop and build "Experimental Safety Vehicles" to advance the state-of-the-art in automotive safety engineering and to hold international conferences periodically to exchange technical information on their programmes.

The conference now serves as an international forum through which progress in motor vehicle safety technology is reported. To reflect this broader scope, at the 1994 conference, the participating governments approved the change of the conference name to "The International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV)". The conference attracts many participants including those from governments, the automobile industry and research organizations around the world.

The theme of the 2007 conference is "Innovations for Safety: Opportunities and Challenges".