Autonomous vehicles get the green light

The Victorian Parliament has passed historic legislation that allows autonomous vehicles to be trialled across the state.

The move follows a similar law established in South Australia in June 2016, and driverless vehicle trials on certain Victorian roads including Melbourne’s CityLink and EastLink freeways since last year.

Under the changes to Victoria’s Road Safety Act, announced by the Andrews Labor government last week, VicRoads will be able to grant permits to individuals or organisations seeking to conduct on-road trials of automated vehicles.

Victoria’s Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Luke Donnellan, also announced a $9 million grant program for researchers and industry, as part of the state’s Towards Zero Road Strategy and Action Plan.

“Victoria is at the forefront of autonomous vehicle technology and these changes will allow our best and brightest to continue to drive transport innovation,” said Donnellan.

“Automated vehicles are the future of road safety – that’s why we’re investing in trials and giving researchers better access to Victorian roads.”

The Victoria government says self-driving vehicles will be “a game-changer for Victorian roads”, initially by reducing and ultimately eliminating human driver error.

Under the new laws, all driverless vehicle trials will require a human supervisor to monitor the vehicle from either inside or outside the vehicle.

Once it has been established that a vehicle can drive safely, this condition may be removed to allow the vehicle to drive in autonomous mode in limited circumstances without a supervisor, said the state government.

South Australia leads the way in driverless vehicle legislation in Australia. Its Motor Vehicles (Trials of Automotive Technologies) Amendment Bill 2016 has been referenced by Google as a benchmark for other countries to follow because of its design and support of innovative technologies.

Instead of introducing an entirely new motor vehicles Act to facilitate autonomous vehicle trials, the SA legislation is based on exemptions within the current Motor Vehicles Act 1959.

Since its bill was enacted, around 20 autonomous vehicle trial proposals have been proposed in SA, including on-road trials, off-road trials and heavy vehicle trials.

What about NSW?
In NSW, where transport laws are known as the Road Rules 2014, the NRMA has said it supports SA-style trial legislation to provide certainty and promote investment in autonomous vehicles.

“To remain fundamentally consistent, NSW should pursue a framework of exemption based on South Australia’s model. By adopting fundamentally consistent legislation, states and territories remain open to cross-border trials,” it said.

The NRMA has urged the following amendments and/or additions to NSW road rules:
>> National autonomous vehicle trial guidelines should be used by default, with amendments and/or additions possible where deemed necessary or desirable
>> Exemptions enacted in other state and territory jurisdictions should be recognised
>> Zero alcohol level for autonomous vehicle stewards
>> Time-based autonomous vehicle trials should be open to the possibility of extension by authority of the Minister
>> Post-trial reporting should be a matter for the trial

In its 2017-18 NSW State Budget Submission, the NRMA called on the NSW government to establish an autonomous vehicle trial fund in anticipation of autonomous vehicle trials.
The National Transport Commission is expected to prepare a nationally consistent legislative model to allow autonomous vehicles on Australian roads over the next two to three years.

The NRMA says this is critical because it expects high vehicle automation (where are driver is no longer needed) to be commercially available to Australians in the 2020s.

The question of liability
The NTC recently identified 716 provisions in state and federal legislation and regulations that relate to autonomous vehicles, including various road transport and safety acts, the Crimes Act 1900, Australian Consumer Law, Australian Design Rules (ADRs), the Privacy Act 1988 and compulsory third party (CTP) insurance.

“Negligence, contract, product liability and consumer protection laws that govern liability for injury, death and property damage are applicable to incidents arising out of the use of automated vehicles,” said the NRMA.

“Laws concerning privacy and access to data could apply to information and data generated by autonomous vehicles. With advanced detection and communication technologies potentially generating a significant amount of data about persons traveling in autonomous vehicles.”

But the association added: “Whether any of these provisions actually prevent the use of autonomous vehicles in Australia is debatable.

“In state and territory road rules, terms such as control, proper control, driver and driving raise many questions. Numerous laws in Australia implicitly assume that vehicles can only be driven by a human driver.

“This implicit assumption creates considerable uncertainty as to how these laws would apply when a vehicle is being driven by an automated driving system.

“Who is the driver of a fully automated vehicle that is operating on a public road without any passengers? Who is responsible for ensuring that a fully automated vehicle does not speed?

“Questions such as these create uncertainty and doubt. While autonomous vehicle trials could have potentially progressed under current law, the introduction of legislation was seen by South Australia as paramount to removing uncertainty.

“With a clear and predictable regulatory framework in place, trial participants are provided with clarity around issues such as insurance, liability, and the interpretation of implicit road rules.”

As NRMA director Tim Trumper says, there are “about 700 laws that need to change … it’s solvable but it’s complex.

“At some point the trust issue will be solved because we just get used to the idea but we’re a long way from that.”