Interview: UN official hails 1st global driverless vehicle rules, praises China's role

GENEVA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The world's first regulation for fully driverless vehicles, recently adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), marks "a decisive breakthrough" after a decade's efforts, said a senior UN official, while praising China's "significant and constructive" role in shaping the landmark rules.

The UNECE adopted the new UN Global Technical Regulation on Automated Driving Systems (ADS) in late June. The regulation mandates that manufacturers implement audited and lifecycle-wide safety governance and processes, conduct credible testing, and provide structured evidence demonstrating that their ADS poses no unreasonable risk.

It also requires in-service performance monitoring and reporting and a data storage system for automated driving.

"For about a decade now, we've seen early predictions of widespread automated driving fail to materialize. What this regulation does is break that deadlock by creating the world's first global framework to legally enable fully autonomous vehicles," said Francois E. Guichard, secretary of the Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) under the UNECE, in a written interview with Xinhua.

Guichard said the regulation's greatest significance lies in replacing fragmented national approaches with a common international framework, offering regulatory certainty for manufacturers, increasing consumers' confidence, and enabling the safe scaling of innovation across markets.

According to the UNECE, the regulation establishes uniform international safety requirements and a common methodology for validating ADS-equipped vehicles.

Guichard also highlighted China's contribution to the rulemaking process. As vice-chair of the GRVA, China has played "a significant and constructive role" through its active participation in developing the regulation, he said.

"As one of the world's leading markets for automated driving innovation, China is well positioned to continue shaping future international regulations and advancing global cooperation," he said.

Guichard expressed confidence in the prospects of global implementation of the regulation. "Major automotive markets including Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, the UK, and the United States have endorsed the regulation, signaling strong momentum toward global adoption," he said.

Looking ahead, Guichard said that technological advances and regulatory frameworks are still not enough, stressing that the next challenge is translating automated driving into real-world use. He said he is confident that China's advantages in the sector can help advance large-scale deployment of the technology.

"China's key strengths include its dynamic innovation ecosystem, strong industrial capabilities, and extensive testing activities in pilot and demonstration zones, which provide valuable opportunities for large-scale deployment," he said.

China's experience in testing and deployment, together with that of other major automotive markets, can make an important contribution to international discussions on automated driving, he added.