A Vision Urbanetic self-driving van by Mercedes-Benz | John MacDougall AFP via Getty Images
BY JOSHUA POSANER
Europe aims to be the first-mover when it comes to letting so-called Level 4 autonomous cars on the road.
The European Commission is ready to let robots take the wheel.
The EU’s executive plans to propose by the end of September what it reckons will be the world’s first technical legislation that will allow member countries to approve the registration and sale of up to 1,500 vehicles per carmaker model each year installed with advanced self-driving technology, an EU official involved in drafting the rules told POLITICO.
Such vehicles, where motorists are no longer required to supervise driving, are still very much in the development stage. The aim is to fix Europe’s position as a first mover for next-generation cars able to navigate road networks and traffic autonomously, said two officials briefed on the plan.
“We are moving from the experimentation phase to the commercial phase,” the EU official said.
The legislation will include 17 separate pieces of technical rule-making that will amend how EU countries approve vehicles for sale. It’s part of a much broader revamp of car safety standards called the General Safety Regulation (GSR) — part of which enters into force on Wednesday.
The EU aims to reach zero road deaths by 2050, but to do that it has to boost safety features in cars, as human error is estimated to be at fault in 95 percent of vehicular accidents.
Continue reading… “EU plans to approve sales of fully self-driving cars”
