ROME – Germany has decided: from next year self-driving vehicles without drivers will be able to circulate freely on some public roads, especially those that connect airports and large cities. The green light for the bill, which modifies the Highway Code allowing self-driving cars to be used throughout the country, came from the Bundestag, the German federal parliament. Now the word passes to the Bundersrat, the federal Senate, to arrive at the final approval of the provision by the end of the legislature.
The new law authorizes the circulation of automated vehicles at level 4 of the SAE classification, whose automatic system can manage any type of solution but still needs the presence of a certain road sign to work and, moreover, must not be activated in case of bad weather or other extreme driving conditions. With final approval, Germany will be the first European country to allow autonomous driving at this level. Before seeing driverless vehicles on German roads, however, the relevant implementing regulations must be approved.
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According to the German Ministry of Transport, the first vehicles to reflect autonomous driving standards at “Level 4” will be shuttle buses, autonomous public transport buses, freight vehicles, which will drive on predetermined routes. There will also be collective robotaxi services, which will be able to circulate exclusively in ‘happy islands’, more easily in small urban centers or areas without excessive traffic.
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“With this law, Germany has the chance to become the first, and so far the only nation, which has created the conditions for future technology,” said Hildegrand Mueller, president of the federal automotive industry association VDA. Customers, industry and locations in Germany will benefit enormously. The German automotive industry can become a world leader in this field. ” Mueller hoped that the Bundesrat would give its ok by the end of the legislature. But in addition to the legal framework, the technical conditions must also be created and “for this purpose – he added – it is necessary that regulations and factory authorizations be approved as soon as possible”. For the president of the association of transport companies VDV, Ingo Wortmann, this law approves a milestone capable of carrying out the mobility revolution: “in autonomous driving there are great chances, which are added to the classic traffic lines , especially in peripheral and rural areas “. “The law is there. Now the cars have to be produced, in order to move forward,” he concluded.
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