The National Transport Commission (NTC) has published a discussion paper entitled ‘Regulatory Options for Automated Vehicles’. The discussion paper has been released as part the NTC’s review into the existing regulatory framework in Australia in the context of automated vehicles. The review comes in the context of what the NTC regards as the disruptive impact of increasing but diverging manufacturing trends toward automated driving controls, in circumstances where Australian road rules assume that drivers are human and use their own judgement, not automated technology, to drive their road vehicles.

The purpose of the discussion paper is to consult with the public on law reform necessary to accommodate the safe introduction of automated vehicles to Australian roads. A copy of the discussion paper can be accessed here.

The NTC will not only review road rules, but also consider existing laws and regulations applying to vehicle safety, driver training, licensing, vehicle registration and vehicle ownership.

The NTC is an independent statutory body established to develop and submit law reform recommendations to a council of federal and state transport, infrastructure and planning ministers known as the Transport and Infrastructure Council. Automated vehicles are defined in the NTC’s review as vehicles that have some level of system automation and which do not require a human driver for some (or all) of the task of driving.

The NTC will accept submissions on regulatory options for automated vehicles until 4 July 2016. For details on how to make a submission to the NTC, please click here.