Germany: Federal Cabinet has approved the ordinance on autonomous driving

 

The German government took note of the ordinance submitted by the Federal Minister of Digital Affairs and Transport to regulate the operation of motor vehicles with automated and autonomous driving functions and to amend road traffic regulations, which completes the national legal framework for autonomous driving.

The ordinance essentially regulates:

• the examination and procedure for granting an operating permit for motor vehicles with autonomous driving functions;
• the requirements and detailed procedure for the approval of the defined operating range for the circulation of a specific motor vehicle with autonomous driving functions on public roads;
• supplementary regulations for the approval of the motor vehicle;
• detailed regulations on the obligations of the parties involved;
• new testing regulations;
• regulatory offences and
• in its annex, detailed technical requirements for the construction, condition, equipment for motor vehicles with autonomous driving functions.

In addition to the technical regulations, the core of the legal ordinance is the regulation of the procedure for the admission of motor vehicles with autonomous driving functions to road traffic. In order to enable the regular operation of these vehicles in public road traffic in defined operating areas, no singular technical exemptions of the respective federal state should be required. For this reason, the amendment to the Road Traffic Act (StVG) last summer already specified a generally applicable three-stage procedure, which is regulated in detail in the legal ordinance:

• The first step is to apply for an operating permit for motor vehicles with autonomous driving functions from the Federal Motor Transport Authority.
• The next step is to apply for approval of one or more vehicles of the same type for a defined operating range from the authority responsible under state law. For this purpose, the operating range must be described, i.e. the roads on which the vehicle will later move. Approval is granted in agreement with the local authority concerned.
• Finally, the actual road registration of the motor vehicle with autonomous driving function takes place by assigning an official license plate and issuing the vehicle documents. In summary, this requires the existence of the two approvals of the previous stages (operating permit and approval of a defined operating range).

Now the Bundesrat (upper house of the German parliament) still has to give its approval so that the ordinance can come into force.

Source: https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2022/008-wissing-verordnung-zum-autonomen-fahren.html