First global rules adopted for self-driving cars, UN says

The first global regulations for fully autonomous vehicles were adopted Wednesday, a United Nations (UN) agency said, establishing uniform international safety requirements that could pave the way for larger-scale rollouts of self-driving cars.

Progress has been slowed by safety concerns, high development costs and differing national regulations that risk limiting vehicles to specific markets.

To address this, the UN's World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations approved a global framework for vehicles equipped with autonomous driving systems (ADS), bringing together countries, automakers and technology companies.

"The global regulatory landscape has reached a decisive milestone," said the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the forum's umbrella organization that counts 56 member states in Europe, North America and Asia.

A big step

The framework comes as the robotaxi market expands rapidly.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), private robotaxi fleets in China and the US more than doubled in 2025 to reach 8,000 vehicles across more than two dozen major cities. It forecasts that by 2035 there will be between 700,000 and 3 million robotaxis in 40 to 80 major cities.

The global regulations aim to "strengthen trust among governments, industry and the public by ensuring that automated systems everywhere meet rigorous ... safety standards," UNECE said.

"This is a really big step," said Richard Damm, chair of the UNECE Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) behind the proposal.

"It's very important, as automation will be one of the future technologies we will see on the road," he told AFP.

The new framework will require manufacturers to ensure testing meets strict credibility criteria, and also to implement audited safety governance and processes throughout the ADS lifecycle.

They would also need to provide evidence their system "poses no unreasonable risk," UNECE said, and would be required to provide continuous performance monitoring.

The regulation requires automatic driving performance to match or exceed that of a competent human driver, UNECE said. 

The vehicles must also record and store safety-relevant ADS data.

The regulation was backed by major auto markets, including Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US.

"We expect it to enter into force in January 2027," GRVA secretary Francois Guichard told AFP, adding that a few manufacturers "are already in the starting blocks."

(With input from AFP)