Page 820 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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It has been recognised both interstate and overseas that accommodating autonomous vehicles within existing road transport regulatory regimes poses significant challenges and would require existing models to be substantially redesigned. No jurisdiction has yet successfully undertaken this task, with autonomous vehicles largely operating under exemptions from the existing traffic laws.
On this issue, I recognise that there is great value in cross-jurisdictional collaboration and a cohesive approach. The National Transport Commission has started to review Australian regulatory models to identify barriers to the introduction of more automated road and rail vehicles. An issues paper to support this review was released on 4 February this year. As this comprehensive national work progresses, it is unwise to introduce new legislation which does not comprehensively address the range of matters required to facilitate autonomous vehicle trials. Rather, the sensible approach is to use the existing provisions of the road transport legislation to support any trial of autonomous vehicles in the ACT.
Historically, trials of new technologies or practices have occurred though the minister granting an exemption, under sections 12 and 13 of the Road Transport (General) Act 1999, from the relevant provisions of the road transport legislation which would otherwise present a barrier to the trial.
Sections 12 and 13 allow the minister to declare that the road transport legislation, or a provision of the road transport legislation, does not apply to an area, road, vehicle, person or animal in the circumstances stated in the declaration. These are flexible powers that have been used in other circumstances in the ACT, such as allowing a trial of segways around the parliamentary zone, conducting the two-year trial of motorcycle lane filtering, and supporting independent taxi operators operating in the ACT who would otherwise be in breach of requirements to belong to a taxi network. From the diversity of those examples, one can see that sections 12 and 13 allow me as the responsible minister quite broad scope to allow for innovation here in the ACT and to be flexible in the approach that we take to specific issues that arise from time to time.
The powers in sections 12 and 13 are not restricted in any way. This provides flexibility for each trial and allows the supporting exemption to be assessed on its merits and an appropriate governance and accountability framework to be established on a case-by-case basis. Appropriate controls and restrictions on trials can be imposed on potential operators through conditions attached to an exemption. Again, you can see from the couple of examples I gave that they are obviously each quite different. Each required a specific regulatory approach. That underlines the strength of sections 12 and 13 and also demonstrates how applicable they can be to endeavours to allow autonomous vehicles to operate here in the ACT.
The breadth of the minister’s power to grant that exemption ensures that an appropriate regulatory model can be developed and applied for each proposed trial. This supports the model for a trial being tailor-made and, importantly, being developed in consultation with industry and trial participants. Again, for me that is a particularly important point in the context of autonomous vehicles, where the
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