Tribune. Germany wants to play a leading role in autonomous driving. To achieve this, a new law, passed on May 19 at Bundestag, paves the way for autonomous driving. It creates the legal framework so that autonomous vehicles can circulate on open roads, throughout the territory, from 2022. It also defines the recording and use of data.
After the advances, in 2020, in the United States, with Waymo, Nuro and Tesla, Germany and its automotive industry had to react to the autonomous vehicle. To stimulate research and development and make the mobility of the future more versatile, safer and more environmentally friendly, the German federal government has submitted a law on autonomous driving to Parliament.
With the new law passed on May 19, 2021, the legal framework is established to allow autonomous vehicles (called “level 4”) to circulate normally on open roads. As a reminder, in the case of level 4, when the automated driving system is activated, the driver no longer needs to monitor it. The system takes over full control of the vehicle. The occupants of the vehicle are only passengers and can go about other activities. The driver can get back behind the wheel as soon as he wishes by deactivating the automated driving system.
Mobility for people and goods
With this law, Germany becomes the first country in the world to integrate driverless vehicles into everyday mobility. The aim is to bring vehicles with autonomous driving functions into service in 2022. With this major breakthrough, the automotive industry should step up its efforts towards autonomous driving. As agreed during the third meeting between the federal government and the automotive industry, “Concerted Mobility Action”, the sector intends to use the new possibilities offered, to deploy automated vehicles on a larger scale.
Flexibility is in the foreground with the law: the operation of autonomous vehicles is made possible for a maximum of scenarios of mobility of people and goods. It is clear that the operation is limited to defined geographical areas. Authorizations are issued individually to operators. It should be noted that the presence of a security driver always ready to intervene is no longer necessary under this new law.
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