Australian transport ministers have approved two key automated vehicle reforms as part of a roadmap of reform to support commercial deployment.
National Transport Commission (NTC) Chief Executive, Paul Retter, has said ministers endorsed new national enforcement guidelines and agreed to progress the development of a safety assurance system at the Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting on 10 November.
“Ministers have agreed to a goal of having an end-to-end regulatory system in place by 2020 to support the safe, commercial deployment of automated vehicles at all levels of automation. This is an important milestone towards that goal,” Mr Retter said.
“Australia is one of the first countries to make this bold commitment to 2020. We want to give certainty to manufacturers by ensuring our regulatory system is flexible and responsive to encourage innovation.”
The National Enforcement Guidelines reportedly provide guidance to police for applying the road rules to automated vehicles.
“These guidelines provide clarity around who is in control of a vehicle at different levels of automation,” Mr Retter said.
“They confirm that a human driver is responsible for the driving task when conditional automation is engaged.
“They also determine that having hands on the wheel is no longer an indicator of having proper control when conditional automation is safely engaged,” he said.
