The National Transport Commission is seeking public feedback to develop a national safety assurance regime for automated vehicles.
The independent statutory body, that is responsible for improving the productivity, safety and environmental performance of Australia’s road, rail and intermodal transport system, released a discussion paper titled Regulatory options to assure automated vehicle safety in Australia for comment.
The paper looks at how a balance can be achieved between government and industry on regulating safety for automated vehicles. It has identified four regulatory options for a safety assurance system.
NTC chief executive Paul Retter said Australia’s transport ministers had asked the organisation to examine the level of regulation required to ensure automated driving technologies were safe now and in the future.
{loadposition sam08}“Australian governments are starting to remove legislative barriers to more automated road vehicles. Without a safety assurance system, these vehicles could potentially be deployed with no government oversight or regulatory intervention,” he said.
“These technologies are highly innovative, technically advanced and varied, and we don’t yet know if they will be safe. We need a mechanism that supports innovation without unnecessary red tape, but also assures the Australian public that automated vehicles are safe.”
The four regulatory options include continuing the current approach, self-certification, pre-market approval and accreditation.
“This is a significant reform in road transport. Over time we will see the risks associated with the driving task shift away from the human driver towards the automated driving system and our regulatory system must be able to accommodate this shift,” Retter said.
Submissions from the public can be made until 4pm on 28 July. The NTC will make its recommendation to transport ministers in November.