Poland

Testing Infrastructure

Poland is currently developing several 5G connected environments, like the 5G corridor named ‘Via Baltica’, which consists of a connected highway adapted to C-ITS crossing Poland and the Baltic Countries.

In addition to this, cities like Jaworzno are taking their own initiatives in regulatory terms, creating a legal framework in 2017 for testing autonomous buses in a defined environment. Also, a complete 3D scanning of the whole city has been performed.

Procedure Description

The testing procedure of Automated Vehicles was introduced in the Electromobility and Alternative Fuels’ Act (Dz. U. 2018 poz. 317) and provides the amendment to Traffic Law Act. According to its records, the testing is possible only in the case of assuring safety restrictions and obtaining necessary testing permit.

The permit is issued by the relevant road supervision entity (depending on the desired testing location). It is issued based on the formal application which needs to contain the following information:

• Name & Surname / Company name and the address of the applicant,
• Information on location and the date on the beginning and the end of test,
• planned testing route,
• list of people responsible for securing the testing route,
• signature of the test organizer

The permit should be additionally attached with:

• The confirmation of signing a compulsory liability insurance on the possible damages incurred during the test,
• The confirmation of paying the insurance fee,
• The copy of a professional vehicle registration.

The road supervision entity provides public consultations with the local community by issuing the application on its website for a certain period of time (not shorter than 7 days). The owner of a building/plot located along the proposed testing route may report an objection.

The final permit is issued after the positive decision of the relevant road supervision entity and getting an opinion of Voivodeship police commander regarding the possible testing disruptions on traffic flow and safety.

The organizer of tests is obliged to:

• Provide the Police the possibilities to ensure the traffic safety, life and health protection of people and property during the testing,
• Ensure that a trained operator is present in the tested automated vehicle and capable to take over the control in dangerous situations,
• Publicly announce the information about the planned tests and the testing route.

The organizer of the tests is obliged to issue an official report to Transportation Technical Supervision not late than 3 months after the testing. The report has to be structured according to the template published in a relevant Ordinance of the Minister of Infrastructure (the ordinance is currently in preparation).

Consumers cannot use vehicles with a SAE Level equal or higher than three by the current Polish regulatory framework.

Organisation(s) in Charge

• Relevant road authority (depending on the proposed route)
• Voivodeship police commander
• Secondary parties involved in the consultation (e.g. local community) & safety procedures
• Transportation technical supervision

Contact Information

• Road authorities in Poland are established on different levels (national, Voivodeship, district, municipality). There are more around 2900 different road authorities in Poland. The biggest road authority responsible for highways and national roads is called Generalna Dyrekcja Dróg Krajowych i Autostrad.
• There are 16 Voivodeship police commanders in Poland (accordingly to the number of Voivodeships – main administrative subdivisions). The following webpage lists all Voivodeship police headquarters and their websites.
• Transportation technical supervision

Link to Procedure Website

The procedure cannot be completed online.

Link to Documents

Road Traffic Law (Polish)

Further Comments

Some of the information is not available in English.