Distracting driving becomes legal in July: green light for level 3 Adas
Now the technology is there and is coming on the market, but at the moment it will be of little use: only from 14 July it should be possible to use the level 3 Adas, that is the driving assistance systems that allow the driver to be distracted and not always keep hands on the wheel because they are able to keep themselves inside the lane (Alks, which stands for Automated lane keeping systems).
However, we remain well away from autonomous driving (i.e. fully automatic, levels 4 and 5): the Alks requires the driver to remain ready to control when it emits an alarm signal.
Come change the law
The current obstacle lies in national laws, which do not yet recognize autonomous driving. For example, in Italy, article 46 of the Highway Code defines vehicles as «machines … that circulate on man-made roads»; the only exception is in the Ministerial Decree of 28 February 2018, with which the Ministry of Infrastructure (Mims) regulated the experimentation of autonomous driving and smart way (roads equipped with detectors and transmitters to exchange data with new generation vehicles in transit, in order to report any traffic disturbance in real time and therefore make the on-board devices more reliable when they govern).
Amendments to the Vienna Convention
But from July 14, the amendments to the Traffic Convention on Traffic, under discussion at international level (UN-UNEC), should come into force: article 34-bis should establish “the requirement that each vehicle should establish or combination of vehicles in motion must have a driver is considered satisfied when the vehicle uses an automatic driving system “compliant with” national technical regulations (of countries that adhere to the Convention, ed), and to any applicable legal instrument “and” to the international legislation governing its operation “.
Adapt the Highway Code
In the first place, this is enough to remove the obstacle also in Italy: the amendment to the Convention is signed by the EU. The Italian authorities could block the registration and putting on the road of self-driving vehicles only in the remote hypothesis in which they demonstrate the right for circulation.