Europes journey to autonomous vehicles

Regulations for autonomous vehicles are currently sprouting all over the world, particularly in Europe. The development of technology that can put vehicles on the road is the question that is being pushed faster

FREMONT, CA: Technological growth is fueled by the changing landscape of the automotive sector. Legislators bear a significant amount of responsibility for ensuring the safe and long-term commercialization of automated and self-driving vehicles. Although they have so far only regulated the vehicle itself, they must now create a legal framework for the driver in the form of an automated driving system.

Regulators are adamant about bringing autonomous vehicles to public roads in the foreseeable future. Things are changing at all levels, whether at the international level, at the level of the European Union (EU), or the local level in some nations - whether it's road traffic legislation or technical vehicle requirements.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) taxonomy and nomenclature, which the ISO and SAE provide to characterise the six degrees of driving automation, should ideally be followed. Levels range from "no driving automation" to "complete driving automation"  Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are commonly defined as ISO/SAE Level 4 or 5 vehicles, in which the ADS executes the complete dynamic driving duty and its fallback on a continuous and (for ISO/SAE Level 4 on an operational design domain-specific basis) without the requirement for user intervention.

The 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic and the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, both of which France and Germany are contracting parties create the international legal framework for road traffic. The Vienna Convention still requires the presence of a human driver to take control and so prohibits the use of autonomous vehicles. This issue will be addressed and the framework for the responsible use of an ADS will be provided by a recent amendment to the Vienna Convention developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE's) Global Forum for Road Traffic Safety, which is set to enter into force around March 2022.