Safety Approval of Automated Vehicles in the EU: Moving Beyond Highway Applications

In June 2020 the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations adopted the first global Regulation for the approval of automated driving vehicles. Although this first Regulation represents a very important milestone for the automotive sector, it covers a very specific use-case, namely conditional automated driving (level 3) for motorway applications. Transport technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace towards higher levels of automation and its safe deployment requires a more comprehensive regulatory framework, also addressing other operating environments. This paper presents an overview of the European Union approach for safety approval of automated vehicles beyond level 3 highway applications.