Emergency Lane Keeping Systems (ELKS) are systems which automatically detect a potential unintended lane departure, provide the driver with an appropriate warning and, if required, correct the vehicle’s trajectory to return the vehicle to its current lane of travel if the driver unintentionally leaves that lane. ELKS are one of the new safety technologies that were mandated in the European Union (EU) by EU Regulation 2019/2144 on ‘the type approval requirements of motor vehicles and their trailers, and systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, as regards their general safety and the protection of vehicle occupants and vulnerable road users’, more commonly referred to as General Safety Regulation 2 or GSR 2, with the detailed technical and performance requirements that ELKS must comply with being specified in a separate EU Regulation; (EU) 2021/646. Within the EU, the fitment of ELKS became mandatory for all new types of M1 and N1 category vehicle (i.e. passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, pick-up trucks and vans) from July 6, 2022, and the fitment of such systems became mandatory for all new vehicles falling into those categories from July 7, 2024.
Following the mandatory introduction of ELKS for M1 and N1 category vehicles in the European Union, a number of Contracting Parties of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) who are not Member States of the European Union expressed a desire to create an equivalent UN ECE Regulation on ELKS so that they could mandate the fitment of equivalent systems in their countries.
The main advocate for the creation of a new UN ECE Regulation on ELKS was Australia, as research undertaken by the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) on behalf of the Australian Government had identified that the mandatory fitment of ELKS to light vehicles in Australia had the potential to significantly reduce both casualty causing and fatal road traffic crashes in Australia. Therefore, it was Australia that submitted the first draft of a new UN ECE Regulation on ELKS to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) in September 2024.
The content of this first draft of the new UN ECE Regulation was closely aligned with the technical and performance requirements specified in EU Regulation (EU) 2021/646, including the scope of the Regulation, which covers both M1 and N1 category vehicles. Following a review of the draft text of the Regulation at the next UN ECE GVRA meeting, it was adopted with minimal changes and was submitted to the UN ECE World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) for consideration at their 196th session in June 2025. During that session, the draft was adopted by WP.29 as a new UN ECE Regulation, Regulation No. 178, and subsequently came into force on January 11, 2026.