Paul Retter

THE National Transport Commission (NTC) wants amendments to driving laws ahead of the introduction of autonomous vehicles onto Australian roads.

It has announced this week that it will ask road transport agencies, police and the commercial road transport industry to provide input on how the federal and state governments should change driving laws.

The NTC has released a discussion paper which is a first step to clarify how driver and driving laws can be applied to autonomous vehicles and – particularly – who would be legally responsible for their operation.

NTC chief executive, Paul Retter, said current driving laws were developed before automated vehicles were envisaged with the assumption that the driver would always be a human.

“The introduction of more automated vehicles will see elements of the driving task shift away from the human driver to the automated driving system but our laws currently don’t recognise these systems,” he said.

“We need to ensure that relevant driving laws apply to automated vehicles when the automated driving system – rather than the human driver – is operating the vehicle.

“We have been tasked with identifying, and if necessary, removing, legislative impediments to automated vehicles. But we must also maintain the intent of existing laws – to ensure the safe operation of vehicles on Australian roads.

“Legislation must recognise a legal entity that can be held responsible for the automated driving system,” he said.

By Neil Dowling