The Ministry of Transport has taken an important step towards the mass appearance of unmanned vehicles on Russian roads. Government officials have developed a draft government decree – an updated classification of highly automated vehicles (HAVs). This is necessary to start the certification of such vehicles.
The document introduces basic terms and classifies unmanned vehicles according to the international SAE standard (five levels of autonomy). The first level corresponds to any modern car with parking assistance systems or adaptive cruise control. The fifth level is a fully autonomous vehicle capable of moving without driver intervention.
Accumulated experience and the study of international practices allow us to update the classification of automation levels of vehicles. The new version of the concept will become the basis for HAV certification. As soon as the changes are approved, certification can begin.
In Russia, the unmanned vehicle industry is developing within the framework of experimental legal regimes (ELR) approved by the government. They allow the organizers of such vehicle tests to deviate from the norms of traffic rules.
Thus, a test engineer, while in the driver's seat, may not touch the steering wheel and pedals, relying on software. In such conditions, companies like Yandex and KamAZ are testing their vehicles.