France

Decree on automated vehicles’ conditions of use and automated road transport systems’ commissioning

Decree n° 2021-873 dated 29 June 2021 sets conditions for automated vehicles to be deployed in French roads. It covers automation levels up to fully automated systems, provided that these are under supervision of a person in charge of remote intervention and are deployed on pre-defined paths or zones. The provisions and requirements, inter alia, specify responsibility principles set in ordinance 2021-443 dated 14 April 2021 and will come into force on 1 September 2022, allowing the deployment of automated passenger transport services, beyond an experimental framework.

2020-2022 strategy orientations for the different domains:

• Automobile:
  • Systems to assist the driving
  • Preparation for level 3
  • Autonomous service in restricted areas of employment experimentation and service between 2022 and 2025
• Transport:
  • Automated shared mobility from 2022 on controlled environments and without onboard operation
• Logistics:
  • Transport of goods on closed sites and automated transport solutions for last mile city centre delivery between 2022 and 2024, supervised at distance
• Mixt:
  • Cooperative automated transport with the infrastructure

Automated road transport system (“ARTS”)

The ARTS are a set of highly or fully automated vehicles, and technical installations allowing remote intervention or participating in security of vehicles deployed on predefined routes or areas, and supplemented with operating, upkeep, and maintenance rules, for the purpose of providing a road transport passenger service.

In order to perform the application procedure, there is a series of information that needs to be specified:

• design domain of vehicles used in the system and of the system itself
• conditions under which a minimum risk manoeuvre or an emergency manoeuvre is activated by the automated driving system
• conditions under which an authorised person may give the instruction to carry out, modify, interrupt or remotely acknowledge a manoeuvre
• description of the manoeuvres that can be performed remotely
• description of acknowledgment conditions for manoeuvres proposed by the system that can be acknowledged remotely
• System intervention depending on the criticality of the situations

The text also explains the Safety general requirements for ARTS:

1. be designed to avoid accidents that may result from reasonably foreseeable situations in its field of employment,
2. recognize whether it is in its field of employment and only be active in this field of use,
3. detect its failures and exits from the field of use, informs the operator, including within the framework of a remote intervention.

Test recommendations for systems validation

In the following document some scenarios are proposed that can be realized in order to validate the safety of ARTS. Making a separation between different scenarios:

• Traffic environments
• Nominal manoeuvres: from lane change while driving to parking actions
• Hazards: road accidents or emergency situations
• Hazards affecting the system response

In the following document is made a first approach of what could be the legal validation overall process for automated systems. Recommending the distinguish of the tools used for the validation of the different systems: simulation or real testing, and the level of verification and security in each of them. The level of verification will determine the criticity level of the system under the different conditions.

Procedure description

The files needed to get the certificate WW DPTC to perform test are the followings:

Design file – Technical system

• Declaration of functionality and safety, which summarises the characteristics and conditions of use of the vehicles
• Capabilities of the technical system: manoeuvring, perception
• and localisation capabilities, remote intervention capabilities
• Types of routes or areas covered by the technical system
• System requirements for testing and facilities outside the vehicle.

The Design file of the technical system is prepared by the designer and under his responsibility.

Preliminary safety file – In project phase

• Routes or areas identified for the circulation of the system
• Characteristics of the service
• Proposed operational safety management system
• Proposed layout of the technical and safety installations located outside the vehicles
• Responses to the technical system requirements for technical and safety facilities
• Characteristics and level of service of the road, its facilities and the technical and safety installations necessary to achieve the safety level
• Test and trial programme

Preliminary safety file is drawn up under the responsibility of the service organiser.

Safety file – Commissioning decision

• Final version of the safety management system in operation
• Verification of the effective implementation of the technical and safety facilities and installations provided for in the preliminary safety file
• Presentation of the agreements between the service organiser and the road managers
• Report on the tests and trials carried out

Commissioning safety file is established under the responsibility of the service organiser.

The operator establishes operational safety management system.

Organisation(s) in charge

• Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity (in charge of Transport)
• Ministry of domestic affairs (in charge of Traffic Safety)
• Ministry of Economy and Finance
• Ministry of Energy and Climate (DGEC)
• Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Sea (DGITM)
• Ministry of Road Security (DSR)
• Coordination Unit of Fight against Insecurity Road (UCLIR)
• National Agency for Systems Information Security (ANSSI)

Contact information

Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity

Link to procedure website

https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/en/automated-vehicles

Link to documents

• Order on the criminal liability rules applicable in the event of the use of a vehicle with driving delegation and their conditions of use(2021/443/F)
• Decree implementing the Order on the criminal liability rules applicable in the event of use of a vehicle with driving delegation and their conditions of use(2021/873/F)

• French Decree on automated vehicles’ conditions of use and automated road transport systems’ commissioning
• https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/DGITM_Feuilles-route-CU-2020-2022-EN.pdf

Further comments

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