At the 192nd session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) World Forum for the Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), a new UN ECE Regulation on Driver Control Assistance Systems (DCAS) was adopted. For the purposes of this new Regulation, which has been provisionally allocated Regulation No. 171, Driver Control Assist Systems (DCAS) are defined as systems which assist the driver in controlling the longitudinal and lateral motion of the vehicle on a sustained basis, but where the system does not completely take over the driving task, i.e. the driver remains responsible for vehicle control and must permanently monitor the environment and the vehicle/system performance.Unlike Automated Driving Systems of SAE Levels 3, 4 or 5, DCAS are categorised as SAE Level 2 systems.
In addition to specifying detailed requirements on the safety and performance of the DCAS themselves, this new Regulation includes specific requirements on the monitoring of the driver to ensure that driver remains available and engaged with the driving task whilst the DCAS is in operation and requires actions to be implemented if a lack of driver engagement is detected, e.g. activating cascading warnings.The Regulation also requires vehicle manufacturers to make information on the capabilities of the limitations of the DCAS readily available to consumers, via documentation, videos, web site material, etc., to avoid situations where the driver may become overreliant on the DCAS.
The draft version of UN ECE Regulation No. 171, as adopted by UN ECE WP.29, is available on InterRegs.NET for our ECE subscribers, and is also available at SelectRegs.