New drafts of EU Regulations on automated driving

Recently the European Commission published two draft EU Regulations, which allow a wider use of fully automated vehicles.  

The first draft (Ares(2022)2077610) mainly specifies changes to (EU) 2018/858 on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles and their trailers, which would allow the European Small Series Type Approval (EUSSTA) of fully automated vehicles. Further, the second draft (Ares(2022)2667391) regulation is an Implementing Regulation in connection with (EU) 2019/2144 and proposes uniform procedures and technical specifications for the type approval of the automated driving systems of fully automated motor vehicles.  

There are several key points of proposed amendments to the EU Delegated Regulation on the approval and market surveillance, which was published on March 22, 2022 for public consultation. Firstly, provisions shall be implemented to allow EUSSTA of fully automated vehicles of category M and N. Furthermore, a new table on specifications of requirements, which are applicable to vehicles in small series, shall be added to (EU) 2018/858. Lastly, the table shall specify if and where exemptions from the type approval requirements are made. 

Further, the draft EU Implementing Regulation proposing uniform procedures and technical specifications regarding type approval of automated driving systems was published on April 7, 2022 and shall only be applicable in the following situative frames. The application shall happen onto fully automated vehicles of category M and N, operating in a priorly defined urban or suburban area, vehicles operating (‘Hub-to-hub’) exclusively on a predefined route with a fixed starting and ending point and lastly onto vehicles with an ‘Automated valet parking’ mode for parking within predefined facilities.