UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UNECE Press conference: Regulating autonomous vehicles

good afternoon and welcome

to this press briefing

on regulating autonomous vehicles,

international developments and the work of the United Nations.

I would like to first of all, introduce our speakers Dmitry

Maas,

deputy Executive Secretary of

Mr Richard Dam, in the middle chair of the Working Party on automated,

autonomous and connected vehicles

known as GR VA

and

further Francois Guichard,

Secretary to the Working Party.

I will pass the pass the microphone to Dmitry Mary

Sin to give some introductory remarks. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Thomas. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

It's my great pleasure to be here with you today and to open this briefing

on behalf of

we

have the privilege to host this week the

World Forum for harmonisation of vehicle regulations.

It's the major

moment for the global road safety community and for the automotive industry

every year

and

is the only

global UN body on inland transport has the privilege to host it as long as well as a few

other key areas of work a few other conventions

and regulatory areas of work that concern inland transport.

But this is just the excuse. The real reason we are here

is autonomous vehicles.

This is an area that is getting more and more attention in

the press and we appreciate all of you being here today.

We

read a lot about autonomous vehicles soon already becoming part of our daily life,

and there have been many promises made in this regard. We were hoping that

they would be on the streets already at the Olympics in 2020

we have had a lot of tests that have received media attention.

We do have quite a lot of public interest in the topic. However,

the fact remains,

there is no yet

scaling up of autonomous vehicles on our roads.

They are part of our reality, but they are not yet part of our daily life

and we are at the

and our responsibility is

to produce high quality regulation in a way that reflects the reality of industry,

the interests of citizens

and also respects the viewpoints of various

stakeholders first and foremost member states.

We

said as

far back as in 2015 that it would be difficult to move quickly on autonomous vehicles

because first and foremost,

safety

is our priority.

We need to have all pieces of regulation in place

before autonomous vehicles can be on the streets safely.

It's not about

the technical feasibility. It is about understanding that safety is the

whole of industry, the whole of government

and whole of UN priority, because this is about human life.

At that point in time, our executive secretary issued a number of messages and

that have

called for countries and industry leaders to take

regulatory work seriously and to come to our platform

specifically within the framework of the World

Forum for harmonisation of Vehicle regulations and

now specifically through the working Party on

automated and autonomous and connected vehicles,

about the work of which you will hear more today

to come together and join forces in creating this regulation.

This is by no means an area where the United Nations experts should

be dictating to the world what to do in connected and autonomous vehicles.

But this is a space,

a legitimate space where all key

players, major countries and we have on this platform

the United States, China, India, of course.

In addition to the European Union as well as Japan, South Korea, Australia,

South Africa and many others participating,

of course,

the automotive industry and I would dare say that we have in

this platform as part of the group's proceeding working party proceedings,

all key automakers

but also very importantly, technology partners.

Because autonomous vehicles are no longer about vehicles,

they are about an ecosystem of

activity,

a I powered solutions and a broader technology discourse.

So we need technology providers. We need

companies that drive the A I technology forward, and we need players like Tesla,

for example,

that are both an automaker and a technology provider as well as many others.

We

now have a sense that while the hype may be slowly disappearing,

the actual serious work on regulation is advancing,

and today is an opportunity to brief you on where this is happening,

in which areas how this is going,

and to do that, we will be joined,

as Thomas, already mentioned by

Richard Dam,

who is the chair of the working party

of the Intergovernmental Body that deals with it,

and by Francois Guichard,

who is my colleague and

secretariat who is responsible for supporting

this inter governmental regulatory Cooper operation.

But let me leave you with two key messages. Once again, this is about safety,

and this is about getting all the stakeholders on board

for a collaborative effort to create regulation that actually works.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Dimitri.

And as you mentioned over to Francois Guichard,

who will explain a little bit more the functioning of

this working party and the importance of this work.

Thank you, Thomas, for the introduction.

Thank you very much, Dmitry, for this great introduction.

So I'm going to speak now a bit more in detail about the UN involvement

in vehicle regulations and the importance of

UN vehicle regulations for the automotive sector.

So UN

provides

a body that is a world forum for harmonisation of vehicle regulations.

The street name is WP 29

since 1952

and this group is dealing with many aspects like safety seat belts,

crash worthiness, braking systems, etcetera.

Environmental performance became also very important 2030 years ago

and many regulations are developed under this

fora

with many stakeholders from all over the world.

Regulations are very important for the automotive

sector as they are also for aviation.

They are an enabler.

For example,

today we talk about automation. But a few years ago, we could have talked about

electric vehicles.

All the regulations for electric vehicles were ready when

the vehicles came on the market with battery electric technology

the same for hydrogen vehicles. The regulations are ready so today we don't have a

mass introduction of hydrogen vehicles. But if there would be

the need, the possibility, the desire for industry,

this would be possible because the regulatory framework is ready.

So we have a body that is trained to develop technical regulations

in a way that is technology neutral

to make sure that we have a level playing field for all industries.

And this makes it a very strong forum where people dare to come.

They agree to come together, develop regulations.

They

kind of negotiate fight, if necessary,

in very good conditions.

W,

29 is unique, unique in the UN system,

but there is no other body dealing with vehicle regulations at

the global level.

This group is essential also because the

automotive sector itself is a global industry

just to give you a few figures and I would like

to thank Thomas for looking for the figures for me.

So

we have around 50 million people working for the automotive sector worldwide

alone here in this region in Geneva. In Europe, I mean

30 million people are working for this sector.

This sector accounts for over 7% of the GDP of the region.

Regulations at the global level allow for huge economies of scale.

They are fostering innovation

and they lower The price of vehicles

should be noted also that this sector contributes to over 400 billion

in government revenues worldwide.

So, you see, this sector is big important

and is providing lots of things in terms of innovation, new technologies, etc.

So,

29 became a logical place to discuss technical

matters also related to connectivity and automation.

We have experience.

It didn't come suddenly,

you know active safety systems with some

electronics came two decades ago in the vehicles

back in 2014. Already we had the initial technical

discussions around this kind of technologies and later, as it was explained, our

executive secretary called on for Cooper operation.

The G7 also, transport ministers felt that

29 was a valuable place and a place where these kind of topics could be discussed.

And we are there after so many years of work, we have

good experience. We know about the technology.

We develop guidelines for automated driving systems for

ADA

and

I am pleased to say that we are now starting

the regulation activities related to

this is where we are.

We have great experts.

We have countries from all over the world

contributing to our activities like the EU.

Of course, the USA Canada, Japan,

Korea, India,

China

and they come together

to develop regulations

and they want to.

They are so motivated in these activities that

they want to co lead these activities.

So we have sometimes very big governance with 78 co chairs from

all these countries willing to work together on global technical regulations.

This is a complex topic.

And just to show you how complex this is, there is no single technology.

There are different levels of automation.

And today I would say that

the technology of level one and two,

which are systems still under the control of the vehicles, are

in the vehicles. Probably 50% of all new vehicles.

Level three is still rare,

and level four doesn't exist for sale as a mass production product.

And this is where we are. And I think

Mr

Adam will tell us more about

what we are doing at

to address this sector and these innovations. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Francois,

for these explanations.

Richard

Dam, chair of the working party over to you.

Thank you, Thomas. And, uh, thank you for inviting me here.

And, uh, welcome to all of you for this press briefing on the work on

automation for road vehicles, Uh,

within the UN EC and especially the WP 29 of

the World Forum for the harmonisation of Vehicle regulations.

As indicated before, I'd like to mention you some items on the role of G

and the current state of play of work within the

so. The work on harmonised regulations undertaken by

brings together a

number of countries here and what we are trying to do is to collaborate. As Mr Maria

already said,

That's the main effort to bring the players to the table

here to work together and to worldwide harmonise vehicle regulations.

And it's the only platform,

as indicated by Mr Guichard,

the only platform

who is acting in the field of vehicle harmonisation.

So we currently, when you look into the different regions around the world,

we have two different regimes.

One is the type approval regime where vehicle manufacturers must demonstrate

to the competent national authorities that

their products comply with existing regulations

before they can sell them and bring them to the market.

And this regime is applied in Europe, in China, in Japan, Australia,

South Africa and a number of other countries.

In total, we have 58 contracting parties to the 1958 agreement

where the type approval regime is administered.

The second regime is the self certification where vehicle manufacturers certify,

let's say, comply with all regulatory requirements, so there is no pre testing.

So the vehicle

manufacturer manufacturers are allowed

to bring their vehicles to the market.

They have just to certify that the vehicles do comply

and there are by the authorities some compliance checks

done on the spot with certain vehicles to check.

If the vehicles really comply.

Under both regimes,

recalls are possible. But there are some differences. Of course.

What we are trying is to combine

the regimes in some way here at

29

to allow

both

area.

So the area is a region where the self certification

is applied and the area where the type approval is applied

to work with the UN

regulations that are drafted at the W 29 and the

like the

under

WB 29.

So

since 2015, W,

29 has adopted a variety of UN

regulations to introduce driving assistance functionalities.

And for

we had two key milestones in 2021 was UN regulation on cybersecurity

and the second

regulation was on the automated line keeping system.

So both were adopted and entered into force in 2020.

And this is still a reference worldwide, and

the last example is India,

who has used these regulations to implement it in their local and domestic market.

Going on time wise, we have since 2019

a work undertaken on the

pre

regulation of the automated driving systems

mentioned already by Mr Guichard.

We have now adopted some guidelines for the automated driving systems, so that's a

major step we have undertaken.

And this is now leading into the regulatory work

which has been started quite recently this year

but

is going

on at a high speed and we are planning to have a globally harmonised regulation on ads

ready mid of 2026 so within two years

and that's very ambitious because, as you heard before,

we are involving all the relevant countries

in technology in industry, North America, Asia, Europe and we also have Australia,

South Africa on board.

So that's a major step we are undertaking.

But it's not only about automation.

We are also looking into assistance systems. We have

agreed and voted positively on a new

UN regulation for driver controlled assistance systems,

the so called DCA

regulation.

It was adopted in February 2024 and will enter into force in September 2024.

And this is

a major step as well as the assistant technology

will bridge

vehicles and the technology that is used

for their way towards automation. So a major step,

it was also unique

last month in May to have

a

first

meeting outside Geneva. We have held a meeting

in the United States of America in Troy, Michigan,

from 20 to 24th of May and we got support from the

Secretariat to do so,

so this was very much appreciated because it gave

us a good opportunity to show the global collaboration

and to work together and also show some demonstrations of technology

so to experience technology is a state of the art technology.

So it was a very good event and we are planning to have one

meeting

also in Asia in year 2025 in Bangkok in Thailand.

And this is massively supported by all the delegations within W

29 and we are of course looking forward to it.

So you should already take note of this event in May 2025 in Bangkok.

So

there is often very often the question raised.

Is there a future for autonomous cars? And I can clearly answer this with a Yes,

this technology will come and it is partly on the road,

even if it's not penetrating the mass market yet.

So there is still quite some years ahead

before we see it in the Mars market,

because we have to resolve several issues and we are working hard here at the

at

the

29

to

overcome these issues, to address these issues and to provide solutions,

that technology can be deployed.

So just a few figures with regard to the vehicle fleets

in the world.

So the average age of fleets in developed countries is approximately 8 to 10 years,

so the fleets are quite old vehicles that are registered,

and in the developing world it is even

the vehicles are even older, 15 to 20 years by average.

We currently have

around 1.5 billion cars in the world today

and there could be 3 billion in 2050. That's what is estimated.

So it's still a growing population.

So as you can see with the existing fleet, it will, of course,

take additional time before we see autonomous

cars being the maturity within the fleet.

So

but anyway, I think

the promises

that we are given by the introduction of autonomous cars will materialise.

That's quite clear, but it is not a silver bullet to address major problems caused by

motorised transport,

and

there are quite a number of challenges in terms of safety as mentioned by Mr Maria,

that is key of our work. It's about collaboration, but safety is a key priority

as we have one point approximately 1.2 million

deaths on the road worldwide in traffic,

50 millions are injured annually

and that costs US two

trillion US dollars per year worldwide,

and we have to work on this and provide solutions.

Air pollution is also

an important issue. Vehicles exhaust

are a major source of air pollution,

which kills 7 to 8 million people worldwide per year,

and the climate angle of course.

So the transport sector is responsible for about

23% of the global greenhouse gas emissions,

with

transport accounting for around 77% of these emissions as populations,

economies and the need for mobility growth.

The World Bank estimates

that the greenhouse gas emissions from transport could increase by as much as 60%

by 2050 if left unchecked.

So it's time to act and it's urgent.

So that means that countries and the motor industry

cannot afford to delay action on these issues,

and automation of vehicles can contribute significantly

to this in a positive manner, so to overcome the problem.

So the Inland Transport Committee here at the UN,

the

equivalent to the I

for air and the IM

for maritime so the International Civil Aviation

Organisation and the International Maritime Organisation,

so the it

is a place for governments to come together

and devise mutual solutions. The adoption of the

strategy

to

decarbonize inland transport by 2050 is an example of this action,

so time to act and we are contributing in the G.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Richard, for these detailed explanations.

With that, I would like to open the floor for questions.

Starting with the room. We have a

So, please

Yes, thank you very much. I have a few questions, actually.

So perhaps if I just go one by one. Firstly, on the time frame,

how many years before we might see level three cars being

at

the same level? Level one and two are now.

We said there's about 50 per cent of the cars on the road.

How long before we might see that for level three and then

ultimately level four and level five. I'll start with that one. Thanks.

Richard De Francois.

Ok,

thank you very much for this question. It will be definitely a step wise approach.

What we currently try to achieve is,

as I indicated before,

to pave the way for assistant technology will

be which will be a bridging technology.

So we see an extension of the functionality of Assistant Technologies

which

is moving and aiming towards automation.

We just see a few level three approvals currently where the

driver is not in the responsibility of the driving task anymore

and the systems on level three and Level four are much more costly

and therefore it is currently just seen in the luxury segment.

But what we are trying is to give

opportunities

for some mass segment. So for the medium price segment as well, and for

assistant technologies will

become more important.

So we are looking.

I think we will see both on the market. But it will

be quicker with the level two systems with

extended functionality instead of the level three systems.

But there will be level three systems as well.

And

about the years I can't name a concrete number, but it will be years.

Thank you.

And just on the numbers of deaths and injuries,

could automated vehicles actually bring those numbers down

rather than being seen as seen as a safety problem?

Could it ultimately become a safety solution?

Thank you for this question.

So we definitely see not only the automation but the assistance systems

as a major contributor

as soon as it

as the penetration is growing within the fleet, the vehicle fleet.

So

what? We have to bear in mind as well is a large number of this road.

Fatalities is also coming from

the middle income and low developing countries. So what the

and I think the UN in general is promoting,

that more of the regulations that are in place here and available here at the UN

are also applied in different regions around the world

which are not yet advanced in vehicle technology

and therefore

the

safety. So Mr

Sean Todd,

who is acting as a road safety

special envoy of the UN Secretary General,

he is promoting the implementation.

And that's what we support as well and also try

to attract more countries to apply the regulations we are

installing here and

you have to bear in mind.

It's not only about the vehicle technology, of course it's about education,

it's about the infrastructure.

So there are many fields where work is undertaken here at the UN

but we are trying to contribute as

WB 29 and

as soon as

there is some

baseline installed for vehicle technology,

for infrastructure and for education of the people

of um of all

road participants,

then automation can also contribute to reducing the number of fatalities.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Richard.

would you like to add anything more on that from the secretary outside Dimitri?

Maybe just a point on road safety

in

December last year, the World Health Organisation issued its report that analyses

the situation in the world regarding

road safety. We saw some small improvement,

but not nearly at the pace that is needed to reach the

2030 target of halving the deaths

on the road.

And of course,

the

deaths on the road are not just related to vehicles.

Very importantly, this is a systems issue,

and the approach we have been advocating for jointly with

and others is a safe systems approach.

It starts from behaviours of everyone on the road to two vehicle regulations,

including

basic regulations that most countries in the world are still to

accede to and to implement from a standard for helmet.

So many die on the roads because they are wearing substandard helmets.

And, as you know, two wheelers are currently

on the rise as a cause of deaths and injuries

to technical inspection. Another basic convention of

that could save lives if only technical inspection in so many low income and

middle income countries could be done according

to the standards that we promote here

and, of course, other

regulations.

Then there is post crash care.

There is a level of financing and there is attention

to road safety in building roads and infrastructure improvements.

No new loan should be issued for a road without road safety being at the centre of it.

This is a key message,

but I would like to say that we don't know yet whether autonomous

vehicles will be more of a problem or more of a solution.

I think it can go both ways

and

again.

We need to look at it as not a car on the road. We need to look at it as a whole system.

It means the perception of a vehicle will

have to change and behaviours and governance models

and well behaviour of players like police

and others will have to evolve as more and more vehicles

operate as level three especially,

and then the drivers do no longer

take responsibility or take limited responsibility.

I think I'll leave it at that.

Thank you, Dmitri,

We have a question online from Jan

Herberman from

Turkish Spiegel

So, uh, Jan over to you.

Uh, yes. Good afternoon. Many Thanks for giving the floor.

Um, I was wondering, um, how do you want to, um,

uh, harmonise the regulations or the upcoming regulations

for autonomous vehicles

with the regulations, uh, for conventional and existing cars

and trucks that are on the road already. Do we have a sort of,

uh um,

uh,

a system with two competing sets of regulations, Or can it be,

um, brought under one huge umbrella? Because,

uh, if this rev revolution really happens, um

then, uh, you have, uh, on the road at the same time.

Uh, autonomous cars

and cars, which are driven by, uh, by, uh, drivers. So how do you wanna

How do you wanna harmonise that many things?

Thank you, Jan, for the question.

Uh, Francois,

uh, over to you.

Thank you, Thomas. Thank you very much for this question.

So I will just say a few words about what we are doing Also.

Currently, we are reviewing all the existing regulations,

and we are identifying where some changes are needed

in order to accommodate the

automated driving systems.

So what we are doing is not to create two different sets of regulations.

We are actually modifying the current set of regulations to

make sure that the regulations will remain fit for purpose,

also with automated driving systems.

Thank you.

And if I may,

I'd like to add that we also have started an

activity about connectivity of vehicles as it is important within a

mixed fleet of manually driven vehicles and automated vehicles

to ensure some communication

between the vehicles. And that's why we have started last year under the WB 29

and the the activity also together with ITU

to work on the connectivity issues for vehicles.

So to drive,

um also,

the connectivity in the right way, as it is needed for such fleet. Thank you.

Thank you. Richard

and Francois.

I don't see any further questions online.

Uh, another one in the room. So back to Robin, from a FP. Thank you.

Thank you. A question about a I

you've been As you said, you've been working on

these issues for many years. But over that time period a.

I has emerged in recent years.

I just wondered if

if that changed the game at all

in terms of

automated vehicles and assisted vehicles

and if so how?

Please, Richard.

Thank you, Thomas.

Indeed, that's a major topic, and quite recently, and it is coming at a high speed.

We have started two years ago at WB. 29 to discuss about a I.

This was started at G.

As it is,

the topic is mainly linked

to automated vehicles and to assistant technologies.

We had a discussion this week, and I'm sure Mr Gar

can

inform you about the outcome or as a result of the discussion

this week.

It's clear we need to address it.

And it's not only related to automated autonomous vehicles, but going beyond.

And that's why WB, 29 has taken it on board and is planning to install

a working group to address the

A. I

topic in the context of road vehicles. And

I hand over to Mr Gar

as well.

Thank you,

Mr Adam.

So

the discussion is still ongoing this afternoon,

so I'm not going to prejudge the outcome.

But

there were indeed activities. We are working on guidance, etcetera

related to a I in the context of vehicles and in the context of vehicle regulations.

You mentioned the activities starting two years ago.

But I remember the first document about a

29 was actually I think back in 2017 already. So

this is really something

that is monitored, and we have really this mandate to monitor this situation.

Of course, there is a preference to work on

technology neutral

requirements because today we talk about a i the hype around a

I where we are all amazed by

who knows what will come in three months.

We are such an exciting time. So

there is a justification for trying to

remain as much as possible technology neutral.

But it seems from the discussion that we have that

we will have no other choice than looking at the specificity of a I at least

within the next months and years. Thank you.

Just just one more.

It might be a bit of an obvious question, but how is the

how is the picture shaping up with regards to legal responsibility for accidents

in terms of, you know, say a crash happens with

an automated or semi automated vehicle. How's that picture shaping up?

Uh, Richard Dam, could you please, uh, share your thoughts on this?

Thank you very much. Thomas and thank you for the question.

It is indeed an important issue.

So we

see currently, of course, the responsibility within the different

countries, different regions around the world. What?

WP

29. What

is providing a service

to develop requirements not only for the event data recorder EDR

but also for the data storage device for automated driving.

So DSS.

This is a device which will

be exclusively installed in automated autonomous vehicles

and stores.

The data that is necessary to check for also liability reasons Not only, but also

I think the EDR

is applicable for all of the vehicles. The whole vehicle fleet

and the DSS

is specifically for automated vehicles. So we are providing

regulation in future

for the countries to install it in their national regional legislation

and to provide the services that can be checked on liability.

Thank you,

thank you very much.

I don't see any further questions

unless there are any last minute requests online or in the room,

we will close there, and

we certainly remain available for any follow up questions that you may have.

So thank you

first and foremost to our speakers for sharing their

insights and expertise with you on on these issues.

Thank you all for attending today.

And, uh, looking forward to keeping you updated on this fast moving area.

UNECE Press conference: Regulating autonomous vehicles - 26 June 2024