On August 26, 2022, a new EU Implementing Regulation laying down uniform procedures and technical specifications for the type approval of the Automated Driving Systems (ADS) of fully automated vehicles was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This new Regulation, EU Regulation No. 2022/1426, is one of the key pieces of legislation which will eventually permit the European type approval of fully automated vehicles. Whilst the scope of this Regulation is expected to be expanded in future, it is currently limited to the following "use cases":
- Fully automated vehicles operating in a predefined area in an urban or suburban environment.
- Fully automated vehicles or dual mode vehicles operating on a predefined route, with fixed start and end points, which may include urban, suburban or motorway environments.
- Dual mode vehicles with a fully automated driving mode for parking applications within predefined parking facilities.
Within (EU) 2022/1426, Annex 2 specifies key performance requirements which the automated driving system must comply with and Annex 3 specifies compliance assessment processes which must be undertaken by the Technical Service to confirm compliance with the performance requirements specified in Annex 2. Although Annex 3 does specify a number of physical tests that the automated vehicle must be subjected to, these physical testing requirements are supplemented with a number of additional compliance assessments, including a requirement for the Technical Service to review both the "safety concept" of the ADS and the safety management system applied by the manufacturer during the design and development of the ADS.
This new Implementing Regulation is available on InterRegs.NET for our EC subscribers, and is also available at www.selectregs.com.