Self-driving cars receive regulation overhaul

A series of reform initiatives surrounding the testing and trialling of automated vehicles will be implemented over the next 24 months.

The initiatives are outlined in a policy paper titled ‘Regulatory reforms for automated road vehicles’, which has been released by the National Transport Commission (NTC).

They are intended to develop national guidelines to support automated vehicle trials, as well as clarify who is in control of a vehicle with different levels of driving automation. In addition, they will develop a comprehensive performance-based safety assurance regime for increasingly automated vehicles and remove regulatory barriers in Australian road rules and other transport laws that assume a human driver.

“Inconsistent rules, regulations and application procedures for automated vehicles are potential obstacles to deploying this disruptive technology in the future,” said Paul Retter, chief executive of the NTC.

“Our goal is to identify and remove regulatory barriers, and avoid a patchwork of conflicting requirements in different states and territories.”

The phased reform program has been based on the analysis of market trends so that conditionally automated vehicles can operate safely and legally on our roads before 2020, and highly and fully automated vehicles from 2020. 

Removing regulatory barriers will maximise the benefits of automated vehicles, including improved road safety, freight productivity and reduced road congestion. It will also provide clarity over insurance coverage in the event of a crash and develop a more responsive performance-based approach to the regulation of more automated vehicles.

Australian transport ministers have reaffirmed the existing policy position that the human driver remains in full legal control of a vehicle that is partially or conditionally automated, unless or until a new position is developed and agreed.

This concludes a one-year project to research the barriers to automation, consult extensively with stakeholders and develop recommendations to support future reform. Later this month, the NTC will release a discussion paper seeking feedback on the development of national guidelines for trials of automated vehicles as the first stage of reform.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Aleksei Demitsev