Automated vehicles need ‘driving tests’

European Union rules on safety approvals for new cars will need to be revised to include ‘driving tests’ for automated and fully-autonomous vehicles according to a new report from the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). ETSC says the EU is far from answering the many research and regulatory questions that must be considered before automated and autonomous vehicles can be put on sale. The report says the priority must be ensuring that the promised safety benefits are delivered in real world driving.
April 26, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

European Union rules on safety approvals for new cars will need to be revised to include ‘driving tests’ for automated and fully-autonomous vehicles according to a new report from the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).
 
ETSC says the EU is far from answering the many research and regulatory questions that must be considered before automated and autonomous vehicles can be put on sale. The report says the priority must be ensuring that the promised safety benefits are delivered in real world driving.
 
One challenge will be ensuring that autonomous cars sold in Europe are capable of following national road rules in 28 EU countries – hence the need for a comprehensive ‘driving test’ to independently verify that vehicles will operate safely under all conditions.
 
Many questions remain over how autonomous vehicles will interact with other human-driven vehicles as well as vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists according to the report.
 
Antonio Avenoso, ETSC executive director said: “Automated vehicles are already starting to appear on Europe’s roads, but regulators are still stuck in the slow lane. It is crucial that we get a much greater understanding of what the real world safety benefits would be, and what new risks would be introduced before these vehicles are put on sale.“
 
In the short term, ETSC is calling on the EU to require mandatory installation of effective and proven driver assistance systems including automated emergency braking and over-rideable Intelligent speed assistance in all new cars and to develop a new EU framework for approving future automated technologies as well as fully autonomous vehicles.
 
As well as safety approval rules for new cars, the report says EU driving licence regulations will need to be updated to reflect the need for drivers to learn how to safely take back command from automated driving systems. EU rules on road infrastructure safety should also be revised to include requirements for automated and semi- automated vehicles such as clear road markings.
 
ETSC also says carmakers must apply full openness and transparency in disclosing collision data for automated vehicles in order that the information can be used to help prevent future collisions. 

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • August 1, 2012
    Simplifying enforcement systems type approval
    Martyn Harriss looks at what we can do to simplify the type approval of enforcement equipment in Europe. I doubt that there are many who can remember the days when policemen hid in the bushes with stopwatches and flags to catch speeding motorists - and I'd suggest that back then there were few who were caught who would have dared question the accuracy of those watches or those who operated them. Probably, fewer still here in Europe could have dreamt that a supranational body such as the European Union (EU)
    Read More
  • March 16, 2016
    Observing driver behaviour in real traffic condition
    The EU’s UDRIVE project will investigate driver behaviour in terms of road safety and the decarbonisation of road transport, as Nicole van Nes and Silvia Curbelo explain. There were nearly 25,700 fatalities on European Union (EU) roads in 2014 or, to look it another way, roughly 70 people are killed in traffic accidents on European roads every day - and many more are injured. Around 22% of the fatalities are pedestrians, 15% will be motorcycle riders and 8% cyclists. So despite the improvements in road safe
    Read More
  • October 22, 2018
    Grey areas: who's legally responsible for C/AVs?
    Connected and autonomous vehicles are an exciting development in the ITS sector – but amid the hype some big questions about their deployment remain unanswered, finds Ben Spencer Connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) have the potential to change the way we travel - and to eliminate road fatalities. But policy makers and regulators will need to ensure user and public safety is included in future planning. The legal and insurance industries will have to catch up, too. For example, questions over who is
    Read More
  • September 8, 2014
    New Volvo challenges connected car thinking
    In America, the introduction of the Wi-Fi Innovation Act has sees the debate over the future of the 5.9GHz band and the potential to open it up to non-licenced users, enter a new phase. Amid the claim and counter-claim of the opposing camps, the launch of Volvo’s new XC90 is easily overlooked and while a connection between the two is not immediately apparent, the new all-wheel drive SUV could be a game-changer.
    Read More

Highlighted Content