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Parliamentary Library & Information Service Department of Parliamentary Services Parliament of Victoria Research Paper Automated Vehicles No. 7, December 2017 Igor Dosen Marianne Aroozoo Michael Graham Research & Inquiries Officers Parliamentary Library & Information Service Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Dr Ani Desai, Debra Reeves, Alice Petrie, Bella Lesman and Jon Breukel for their help in the preparation of this paper. ISSN 2204-4752 (Print) 2204-4760 (Online) © 2017 Parliamentary Library & Information Service, Parliament of Victoria Research Papers produced by the Parliamentary Library & Information Service, Department of Parliamentary Services, Parliament of Victoria are released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs licence. By using this Creative Commons licence, you are free to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work under the following conditions: . 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If you are unsure please contact us. ii Research Paper | PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICE Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2 What are automated vehicles? ........................................................................................................... 2 Economic impacts of automated vehicles ............................................................................................... 7 A new paradigm in transport .............................................................................................................. 7 Private vehicle ownership .............................................................................................................. 8 Employment ................................................................................................................................. 10 Product liability and insurance in Australia .................................................................................. 12 Regulation ............................................................................................................................................. 13 National Transport Commission Review of regulation ................................................................. 13 Federal regulation......................................................................................................................... 14 Victoria .......................................................................................................................................... 15 Have other states progressed on automated vehicles? ............................................................... 16 Other considerations? .................................................................................................................. 17 International conventions and automated vehicles ............................................................................. 17 Background ................................................................................................................................... 18 United Nations .............................................................................................................................. 18 European Union ............................................................................................................................ 19 United States ................................................................................................................................ 20 Singapore ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Selected trials ............................................................................................................................... 24 Other trials .................................................................................................................................... 25 References ............................................................................................................................................. 27 PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICE | Research Paper iii iv Research Paper | PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICE Executive summary This research paper will look at a number of issues related to automated vehicles, including regulation of, and legislation addressing, the testing of automated vehicles in Australia, as well as the likely economic impacts of introducing these vehicles and existing schemes in overseas jurisdictions. It will also present the potential benefits and obstacles related to the development and deployment of automated vehicles and discuss key issues that will face policy makers in Australia. While automakers are committed to producing a driverless car, many experts agree that the development of a truly autonomous vehicle is unlikely (or is at least decades away). However, vehicles which can operate at high levels of automation and which will not require a driver for long periods of time are possible and imminent. Further, automakers predict that such vehicles will be brought to market by 2020. It is therefore vital that policy makers understand the implications of this emerging technology. The development and deployment of automated vehicles will likely see a wide array of economic benefits. Because of the likely structural changes to the economy, a number of important economic impacts of the introduction of the technology have been raised. The first section of the paper focuses on three main areas of economic change: structural changes to private car ownership, ramifications for employment and product liability and insurance schemes. Research suggests that there will be a paradigm shift away from private car ownership towards automated ridesharing services or ‘transport as a service’. Analysis shows that those employed primarily in driving roles, along with those working in related industries such as automotive production and operation, will be most affected. It is expected that insurance and product liability law will cope with the introduction of automated vehicles, though the National Transport Commission (NTC) is set to report further on this issue in 2018. The second sections focuses on the current regulatory environment in Australia. The NTC has been tasked at the federal level with steering the regulatory reforms required for the safe introduction of automated vehicles from SAE level 3 and up. To date the NTC has produced guidelines for safe on-road testing, enforcement guidelines for police, and will be producing the regulatory impact statement for the COAG Council early in 2018. Victoria’s regulatory reform has commenced with the introduction of the Road Safety Amendment (Automated Vehicles) Bill 2017 (Vic) for the testing of SAE levels 3, 4 and 5 vehicles in November 2017. South Australia has had an automated vehicle testing regime in place since 2016. Infrastructure Victoria are to advise the Victorian Government over the next year on the transport infrastructure investment required to meet the introduction of SAE levels 4 and 5 on Victorian roads, as well as advising on the anticipated changes in vehicle ownership and market models. The final section of this research paper provides an international comparison of approaches to regulation of the driver and regulation of the testing and manufacturing of automated vehicles. It also provides descriptions of some of the more innovative trials occurring worldwide. Varying international jurisdictions differ in their approaches to regulating the testing and production of automated vehicles. However, policy and legislation across most jurisdictions share the view that a balance must be struck between encouraging speedy development and deployment of the technology on one hand, while ensuring that such development has appropriate legal safeguards on the other. The analysis shows that Australia tends to adopt vehicle safety laws which are generally consistent with the European approach. More broadly, the Automated Vehicles Bill 2017 is similar to the approach taken in both the EU and California. PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICE | Research Paper 1 Introduction We are currently at the cusp of a transport revolution. The coming years will see a substantial change in the way transport is structured, while the traditional paradigm of private car ownership will be challenged1. At the centre of the coming disruption are automated vehicles. The last few years have seen huge investment in the technology from industry experts and manufacturers and it is clear that the question of automated vehicles must no longer be framed in the context of ‘if’, but instead ‘when’. At the end of this road lies the potential for the ‘driverless’ car.