Future Mobility Autonomous Driving: Declaration of Intent for Uniform Standards in Europe

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In order to better coordinate the development and use of autonomous vehicles in regular traffic throughout Europe, Germany and 16 EU member states have signed a declaration of intent to this effect. The aim is to develop uniform European standards for technology, safety, infrastructure and regulations.

Against the backdrop of the EU Council of Transport Ministers in Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden have signed the Joint Declaration of Intent. The German Association of the Automotive Industry also welcomes this: "The signing of the Joint Declaration of Intent is a good signal for the ramp-up of autonomous driving in Europe. The German and European automotive industry has the technological expertise. It is long overdue for the regulatory framework in Europe to keep pace," explains VDA Managing Director Dr Marcus Bollig and emphasizes: "The fact is that the successful scaling of Level 4 applications requires rules that can be used across borders, harmonized procedures and greater mutual recognition of approvals. Europe must not and cannot afford any isolated regulatory solutions when it comes to autonomous driving."

Faster to Market Maturity

The test fields should enable autonomous vehicles to be operated under real, cross-border conditions. The aim is to develop uniform European standards for technology, safety and infrastructure, including the harmonization of corresponding national and European regulations. In this way, the countries hope to bring the technology to market maturity more quickly and strengthen EU competitiveness. The intended use cases are public transport, including robotaxis, and freight transport. "Autonomous driving is not just a technical innovation, but a key future technology for our mobility. In local public transport and freight transport in particular, this creates new opportunities for greater efficiency, safety, sustainability and participation," said Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder, underlining the need for action. "We want to operate autonomous mobility across EU borders and develop harmonized European standards for technology, safety and infrastructure. With this timely initiative, together with our neighbors France and Luxembourg, we can build on our existing trilateral test field activities and take them to the next level. Together with all other signatory Member States, we can enable the large-scale deployment of automated vehicles in regular traffic and across national borders.

In addition to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the states of Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland (Germany) are involved in the initiative at national level. (se)