The European Union requirements on Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EU WVTA) have included provisions which allow for the type approval of fully automated (driverless) vehicles, within specific use cases, since 2022. However, these provisions are only currently available via the small series type approval scheme, meaning that the maximum number of vehicles of an approved vehicle type which can be registered within the European Union in a calendar year is restricted to 1,500.
It has been the intention of the European Commission for some time that, once both the Automated Driving System (ADS) technologies and the Regulatory requirements applicable to such systems had reached a suitable level of maturity, it would be appropriate to remove these volume restrictions. In the case of one particular ‘use case’, the European Commission are now satisfied that the technologies and applicable Regulatory requirements have reached a level of maturity where it should be permissible for vehicles equipped with that system to obtain full European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EUWVTA), without the being subject to the vehicle registration limits imposed by the small series type approval scheme. The ‘use case’ in question is Automated Valet Parking (AVP), which is a system which allows a vehicle to be driven ‘autonomously’ within a suitable parking facility. When the driver of an AVP equipped vehicle arrives at a suitable parking facility and activates the AVP system, the vehicle will ‘autonomously’ drive itself to an available parking space and park. When the driver returns to the parking facility and ‘calls’ the vehicle, it will ‘autonomously’ drive itself from its parking space to a defined ‘pick up’ point within the parking facility to be reunited with its driver.
When the EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval requirements specified in (EU) 2018/858 on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles and their trailers, and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles were updated in 2022 to allow for the small series type approval of fully automated vehicles, a separate EU Regulation, (EU) 2022/1426, was published laying down uniform procedures and technical specifications for the type approval of the Automated Driving Systems (ADS) of fully automated vehicles. Before those EU WVTA requirements can be amended to allow the full European Whole Vehicle Type Approval of vehicles equipped with AVP systems, the European Commission determined that it would be necessary to update (EU) 2022/1426 to introduce specific technical requirements, safety performance and validation criteria for such systems.
The necessary amendments to (EU) 2022/1426 were published in the Official Journal of the European Union on March 3, 2026 as EU Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/481. This new EU Regulation introduces a completely new Annex into (EU) 2022/1426 containing specific provisions for Automated Valet Parking (AVP) systems. This new Annex consists of three separate Parts:
- Part 1 contains definitions for the specific terms that are used within the AVP Annex.
- Part 2 contains the performance requirements for AVP systems, such as how the AVP should undertake the Dynamic Driving Task (DDT) under specific scenarios.
- Part 3 contains compliance assessment procedures, specifying the test procedures to be followed when assessing the compliance of the AVP system with performance requirements defined in Part 2 of the Annex.
The amended requirements introduced by (EU) 2026/481 entered into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, i.e. on March 23, 2026.