Road map and action plan to facilitate automated driving on TEN road network – version 2020 (final draft)

This roadmap gathered information in several open workshops with road authorities and operators, with the L3pilot project, with external experts in the field of cost and benefits considering the operational design domain, and with European Commission representatives.   Stakeholders, road authorities and operators, have already been considering their position on automation, on different levels, in several initiatives. This is a continuous effort since the field of automation is constantly evolving. This roadmap document is part of this continuous effort and focuses on findings/efforts and a direction for future work within the following topics: Impact on and role of physical and digital infrastructure, with a specific focus on the concept of Operational Design Domain (ODD)Cost and benefits of automation for road authorities and operators   The document provides a list of 45 actions and recommendations  many of which at least need to be addressed by road authorities/operators. For each action information is provided on other stakeholders involved, resources needed (money, time, power, cooperation, …) and timing (short term: next 3 years, medium term: next 10 years, long term: > 10 years).   The emphasis is clearly in learning more about the developments and evolution of higher level (SAE 3-4) automated driving including the related ODD requirements. Goal is to be prepared for automated driving, have influence on the development so that road network operation does not suffer but rather improves, avoid excessive investments in vain, and to reap the potential benefits as soon as possible. It is premature to commence deployments unless road authorities and operators are certain that the solutions invested in will not become obsolete in the short term. Some of the short-term actions, can be carried out with no regrets as they will benefit the road network operations already today and involving human-operated vehicles. Such relate to, for instance, provision of data in digital form, digitalisation of key processes, implementing cybersecurity, and provision of connectivity of the physical and digital infrastructure.   The actions and recommendations should be taken further by the road authorities and other stakeholders. Especially a structured dialogue between the road authorities/operators and the automated driving industry is considered important. It would be advisable to converge the large number of roadmap activities in Europe towards a smaller number of dedicated work streams.