Autonomous cars coming to Australia with upcoming legislation

The Federal Government is developing legislation to unlock the mainstream use of autonomous vehicles on Australian roads – and their sale to the public.

Limited trials of driverless vehicles have already been conducted in Australia, but a new Automated Vehicle Safety Law is in the works to manage the "safe operation" of autonomous cars on a broader scale.

The legislation has entered a public consultation period until 11 June 2024, with the Government considering how autonomous cars should be regulated, how they can be repaired, and if road rules need to be changed to accommodate them.

It could enable the use of driverless 'robotaxis' – which do not have humans behind the wheel – similar to test programs being conducted by General Motors and Google in the US.

However, it may still not speed up the local roll-out of Tesla's so-called 'Full Self-Driving' system – as in the US the human behind the wheel continues to be legally in control of the vehicle, and must be ready to turn the steering wheel or hit the brakes at any time.

A consultation paper published by the Australian Government proposes the human occupants of an autonomous car – or an autonomous driving system within a car – would "not [be] held responsible for safety risks that they cannot control."

Rather, responsibility for the "safe operation" of the autonomous car – throughout its life – would be placed on another organisation "in the best position to do so", which could be the manufacturer of the vehicle.

"If we do not change our laws to assign responsibility for safe operation of ADS [autonomous driving systems], human users of automated vehicles could be unfairly held liable for any crashes when the ADS was in control," the Government paper says.

"We also need to ensure that human users understand their responsibilities in vehicles with an ADS."

The organisation assigned responsibility for the actions of an autonomous car would be required to ensure the vehicle meets all road rules, make efforts to prevent the vehicle being hacked by third parties, and "provide education and training to ... users" of the vehicle.

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The legislation would also include provisions for the remote control of autonomous vehicles.

The Federal Government defines an autonomous vehicle – or 'Autonomous Driving System' (ADS) – as being able to "drive .. on a sustained basis without human input."

This would apply to 'Level 4' and 'Level 5' autonomous vehicles, which can drive themselves without a human paying attention to the road, keeping their hands on the steering wheel, or being in a position to retake control of the vehicle if they are prompted.

Also included would be Level 3 autonomous vehicles, which can drive themselves "some of the time", and require a human behind the wheel who is ready to take control if the car requires them to do so.

However, it does not include 'Level 2' features – such as adaptive cruise control and lane0centring assist – which are 'driver assistance' systems, and still consider the human behind the wheel as being in control of the vehicle.

Included in this bracket is Tesla's so-called 'Full Self-Driving' technology, which is limited in its full form to North America – as well as its simpler 'Autopilot' sibling, which is offered in Australia, but is just Tesla-speak for adaptive cruise control and lane-centring.

These latter two features allow a vehicle to accelerate, brake and centre itself within its lane, but the driver must keep their hands on the steering wheel, and eyes on the road.

Regulations for autonomous vehicles have been in development locally since 2016, between state and territory governments, the Federal Government, and the National Transport Commission.

To have your say on the Automated Vehicle Safety Law, click here to read the consultation paper and provide your feedback by 11 June 2024.