Australia’s National Transport Commission (NTC) has released a paper titled ‘Regulatory Options for Automated Vehicles’, according to which there are 716 potential barriers in existing legislation to allow fully driverless vehicles in the country.

The paper proposes that the barriers need to be addressed as soon as possible to ensure clarity around the status of more automated vehicles on the country’s roads and to support further trials.

This discussion paper builds upon the issues paper released by the NTC in February and the 32 submissions already made by stakeholders.

"Australia’s laws need to be ready for the biggest change to our transport system since cars replaced horses."

NTC commissioner and chief executive Paul Retter said: "Australia’s laws need to be ready for the biggest change to our transport system since cars replaced horses."

Although changing the existing laws will not be tough, ensuring the new laws are nationally consistent and encourage innovation while enabling safety of all road users will be important, he added.

"The NTC will take recommendations to Australia’s transport ministers when they meet in November.

"Stakeholders now have the opportunity tell us how to make sure we have the best possible national laws for our national economy and our local communities.

"Among the important and fundamental issues that will need to be resolved include enabling on-road trials of automated vehicles nationally, clarification on when control can alternate between a human and an automated driving system and how should the requirement that a driver must have proper control of a vehicle be interpreted by police when there is no human driver."

Additionally, the government will have to address issues surrounding whether people injured in a crash with an automated vehicle will always be able to claim insurance under compulsory third party insurance or state-based accident compensation schemes.

Retter added that Australian governments must ensure that the removal of these barriers and any new requirements were implemented in a logical sequence, in step with the commercial deployment of different automated vehicles.

There are risks in trying to rush ahead and amend vehicle standards for fully automated vehicles such as driverless pods without first addressing existing barriers to the types of automated vehicles that are likely to be seen on roads in the near future.

Automated and semi-automated vehicles are expected to be available in Australia within the next few years.