"Automated" driving as a generic term describes all levels of automation according to SAE, i.e. it includes all vehicles equipped with automated driving systems: 

• Driving assistance systems and partial automated driving systems support the drivers in their driving tasks (e.g. cruise control and/or lane control assistant).
• Conditionally automated driving systems can take over the control of the vehicle in certain traffic situations completely independently and over longer distances. Depending on the situation, driving tasks can be retransferred to the driver within a few seconds (e.g. road work zone).
• Highly automated driving systems are capable of handling highly complex situations without the intervention of the driver. In case the driver ignores possible warnings, the vehicle has the authority to move into safe conditions (e.g. safe stop at a roadhouse).
• Fully automated driving systems take over the steering permanently, which means that a driver is not required anymore. The vehicle is capable of handling all driving situations (at any time, under all road and weather circumstances and on all types of roads) by itself. Such vehicles usually do not have any control instruments (e.g. steering wheel).

The term "autonomous" is usually used synonymously with the term "fully automated" – other synonyms are "driverless" and "self-propelled".

The degrees of automation describe the various stages of automated driving. The most common definition of the different levels of automated driving corresponds to the representation of the international recommendation “SAE J3016”.

The Contact Point Automated Mobility at AustriaTech is the first counterpart in legal and technological issues for national and international companies and projects who want to test automated vehicles according to the Automated Driving Ordinance (AutomatFahrV) in Austria. It examines the conditions for obtaining a certificate for testing of automated vehicles on roads, which are publicly accessible. On top of this, the Contact Point networks the various test environments, projects and stakeholder in order to impart and exchange knowledge and information in the best possible way and to provide feedback for the legislator within the framework of impact monitoring.

Learning from tests and pilot projects within the framework of clearly defined use cases as well as the development of new forms of mobility is the main focus of the Austrian strategy for the development of automated mobility.

Based on the 33rd amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act, the BMK issued the Ordinance on Automated Driving (Automatisiertes Fahren Verordnung in short “AutomatFahrV”) on roads, which are publicly accessible. It specifies the conditions for testing automated vehicles on roads, which are publicly accessible. In particular, it defines which assistance systems in which traffic situation, on which types of roads, up to which speed ranges can be tested.

The ordinance defines eight use cases for test purposes and two use cases for systems approved for series production.

The Automated Driving Ordinance (AutomatFahrV) currently (as of April 2022) permits the following use cases:

• Automated minibus,
• Automated vehicle for passenger transport,
• Automated vehicle for the transport of goods,
• Motorway pilot with automated lane change,
• Motorway pilot with automated driving on motorway on- and offramps and exits,
• Automated military vehicle,
• Automated valet parking and
• Automated working machine.

You can download the Automated Driving Ordinance here.

By creating a legal framework, the testing of automated vehicles is possible if certain requirements are met. The legal requirements to be met can be found in the AutomatFahrV. Further requirements for testing on roads, which are publicly accessible are defined in the Code of Practice.

Tests on roads, which are publicly accessible that go beyond the scope of the use cases of the AutomatFahrV are currently not possible in Austria. The Contact Point is happy to collect the corresponding demand in order to incorporate it, if necessary, into the process of extending the testing possibilities. Companies that want to carry out tests should therefore contact the Contact Point at an early planning stage via: automatisierung@austriatech.at.

The Code of Practice (CoP) serves as guidance for vehicle manufacturers and testing organisations and is designed to establish the framework to ensure safety during tests on public transport roads. The CoP guidelines are intended to serve as complementary guidelines to the legal requirements and any regulatory procedures and requirements. Compliance with the CoP regulations does not exempt from any liability obligations.

Vehicle manufacturers must ensure that automated vehicle technologies have undergone extensive testing and development before they go into production. Testing must initially take place on private test sites and tracks. These tests must at least provide evidence and ensure that the automated driving mode can be assumed to manual control by test drivers at any time to ensure the necessary safety during the tests.

Once the reliability of the systems has been proven, further tests on roads, which are publicly accessible will be necessary to test all situations that may arise in real life. However, such tests may only be carried out if it has been ensured that they are associated with minimal risks and if they are necessary to address the research issue(s) in question, as the research question(s) can only be answered by testing on roads, which are publicly accessible.

The application for testing the use case “automated minibus” as well as the use case "automated vehicle for passenger transport" may be submitted by vehicle manufacturers, system developers, research institutions, transport companies and operators of motor vehicle lines.

A test application for the use case "automated vehicle for the transport of goods" may be submitted by vehicle manufacturers, system developers, research institutions and goods transportation companies.

According to the ordinance vehicle manufacturers, system developers and research institutes may test the system of "motorway pilot with automated lane change" as well as "motorway pilot with automated driving on slip roads".

The application for testing an “automated military vehicle” may only be submitted by the Federal Ministry of Defence.

A test application under the use case "automated valet parking" may be submitted by vehicle manufacturers, system developers, research institutions, transportation companies and operators of parking garages and parking lots.

Tests with "automated working machines" may be carried out by vehicle manufacturers, road maintenance companies, developers of systems and research institutions.

Interested parties can get in touch with the Contact Point at any time and express their interest in test drives with automated vehicles on roads in Austria, which are publicly accessible and present an idea or concept for the planned test project. The Contact Point will then advise on the next steps and which requirements must be fulfilled or which documents must be provided in order to obtain a test certificate from the BMK. The Contact Point also provides support in the next steps and in preparing the application documents.

The application documents or the test application can be submitted to the Contact Point on a quarterly basis using the form (deadlines can be found here). Afterwards, the received test applications are technically and legally evaluated by the Contact Point and the BMK, with the support of the Advisory Council Automated Mobility. If the applications are covered by the existing regulation and fulfil all requirements, the BMK will issue an individual certificate.
The schematic procedure for testing automated vehicles and their systems on public roads is shown here.

• Valid driving authorisations of all test drivers for the respective vehicle category used (as a scan; proof required at the time of application)
• Written confirmation of the test driver training (internal or external training) for all drivers, (certificate must be provided by an independent entity or the vehicle manufacturer)
• Confirmation, that all operators have been adequately instructed into the specific testing project (confirmation must be provided by the testing organisation)
• Results report of the route analysis and risk assessment (recommended template provided by the contact point)
• Proof of a valid motor vehicle liability insurance (proof required at the time of application)
• Proof of written communication between the Governor/Governess and the ASFINAG (if test drives are planned in the ASFINAG network; proof can be submitted up to 5 working days before the start of the test at the latest)

The Council consists mainly of technicians and lawyers who, together with experts from cross-sectional areas, evaluate the submitted test applications on a quarterly basis. Most of them contain completely new technologies for which there are no standardised acceptance criteria. That is the reason why the Council's technicians examine the information of the test applications in detail. Only in this way it is possible to make a reliable assessment whether these technologies are so mature that they can be safely tested on roads, which are publicly accessible. The members with legal expertise assess in parallel whether such tests are legally covered by the international and national legal bases and contribute to formulating new use cases for the AutomatFahrV in order to be able to work out necessary adaptations as quickly as possible in order to secure competitive advantages.

The Advisory Council makes recommendations on the following topics: ethics, data protection, (product) liability, road traffic regulations, international activities, further development of road infrastructure and urban planning. The Council identifies recommendations for action and attitude for the BMK within the framework of future strategy and advises on how to proceed in various areas in the future. The recommendations in the area of ethics serve in particular to improve communication of the topic of automation to the public.

These are assistance systems, which may be integrated as standard by the vehicle manufacturer as they are legally approved. However, this does not mean that they are included as standard in the basic equipment of all vehicles.

Since the first amendment of the AutomatFahrV (11.03.2019) approved parking aids and motorway assistance with automatic lane keeping installed as standard in vehicles, these systems may be used in Austria under certain conditions on roads which are publicly accessible. In this case, both hands may be removed from the steering wheel.

An increasing number of vehicles are being equipped with advanced driver assistance systems. These systems are firmly integrated in the vehicle as they are legally permitted and are intended to facilitate driving tasks and thus support drivers. This support ranges from information and warning to steering speed control. However, drivers can deactivate or override these systems at any time.

Examples for driver assistance systems:

Electronic Stability Program (ESP): The vehicle is automatically stabilised in critical driving situations such as skidding.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC): Cruise Control with automatic distance control.

Lane Departure Warning (LDW): The Lane Departure Warning uses integrated cameras to ensure that the lane is maintained. There are systems that alert drivers with haptic warning functions (vibration in the steering wheel) or lane departure warning systems that actively intervene in the steering.

Parking aid: The system performs the driving task when the vehicle is parked or unparked by means of an automatic steering function.

Automatic accident reporting (eCall): In the event of an accident, information is forwarded to a central reporting point via crash and/or collision sensors.

In principle, there are two versions of type approval for motor vehicles:

• National type approval (only valid in the country of issue) and
• EU-wide type approval (EC type approval)

Motor vehicles manufactured in series, which are equipped with an EC type-approval after January 1^st, 1996 generally have an EC type-approval. The EC type-approval is granted by a member state and is valid in all member states.

In case of modifications to an approved type, such as an installation of non-serially-approved sensors, a permission must be obtained from the respective federal state inspection body.

General information, responsible authorities, procedures and documents required for the typing of vehicle conversions can be found here (this page is only available in German).

For vehicles, for which a type certificate cannot be issued (e.g. prototype), an application for individual approval may be submitted. The individual approval of vehicles is a matter for the federal state and must therefore be granted in the federal state in which the owner of the vehicle is resident.

The technical inspection bodies of the federal state government can be found here (this page is only available in German).

In order to be authorised to drive a vehicle with non-serially-approved equipment on roads in Austria, which are publicly accessible, permission must be obtained from a federal state inspection body. A special permission from another country (e.g. Germany) is not valid in Austria.

General information, responsible authorities, procedures and documents required for the typing of vehicle conversions can be found here (this page is only available in German).

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at automatisierung@austriatech.at.

Currently, it is not possible to perform tests on roads, which are publicly accessible beyond the scope of the use cases defined in the Ordinance on Automated Driving (AutomatFahrV). The Contact Point Automated Mobility continuously collects these test requirements in order to subsequently analyse which additional use cases are required and can be implemented.

You can contact the Contact Point Automated Mobililty by: automatisierung@austriatech.at

Before submitting a test application for test drives on roads, which are publicly accessible, the planned test route(s) must undergo a thorough route analysis and risk assessment. The route analysis and risk assessment is a method that, among other measures, serves to ensure the road safety of all road users in the course of conducting test drives with automated vehicles.

With this method, the intended test route is divided into individual, homogeneous sections and the initial risk for each of these sections is identified. In further iterative steps, appropriate mitigation measures are set to minimize the risk potential for the test project and for all road users.

For conducting a route analysis and risk assessment, the Contact Point provides a template that can be referred to and should be understood as a recommendation. In no case is this template to be used obligatory. In any case, however, a result equivalent to the template must be produced.

The route analysis and risk assessment covers in particular the route-specific risk requirements. In order to identify and prevent further risk requirements, a risk analysis (RCA, FMEA or similar) must also be carried out for the entire test project and the results summarized in the test application.

The driving training for operators includes, on the one hand, an appropriate test driver training for the operator and, on the other hand, an adequate instruction of the operator into the specific test project and the specific (local) conditions.

The adequate driving training for operators is demonstrated by

• a certificate of a successfully completed test driver training of each operator from an independent authority or the vehicle manufacturer and
• confirmation from the testing organisation that an appropriate instruction has been provided. For the traceability of this confirmation, a description of the contents of this instruction is required.

The main difference between §7 and §7a AutomatFahrV is that §7 Automated Minibus is primarily intended for testing prototype vehicles that have been designed as automated vehicles in the low speed range, but mostly do not have series approval (e.g. the automated shuttle buses from Navya or Easymile).

Under §7a Automated Vehicle for Passenger Transport, on the other hand, test drives with modified series-production vehicles can also be applied for. This distinction results in the further differentiation that under §7 a maximum speed of 20 km/h is permitted, while under §7a a maximum of 50 km/h may be driven – as far as this is permitted based on the results of the route analysis and risk assessment.