From paper to pavement: Global self-driving rules enter the real world

After years of drafting, global rules for automated driving are entering the messy implementation phase. A UN vehicle-regulations panel convened in Geneva on Monday, three months after the first international technical regulation for automated driving systems (ADS GTR) was adopted, to sort out how different countries will apply the same rules.

That panel is the Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA), a subsidiary body of the UN World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). Its 26th session follows the June adoption of the ADS GTR at the 199th WP.29 plenary session – and the focus has now shifted from drafting rules to applying them.

The session's agenda includes progress reports from the ADS Informal Working Group (ADS IWG), the applicability of UN Global Technical Regulations and UN Regulations to ADS, and the classification of automated vehicles. These items address unresolved questions: how different contracting parties will transpose the same technical regulation into national law, and which categories of automated vehicles fall under which rules. The GRVA chair has proposed an implementation support mechanism similar to the one used for UN Regulation No. 155 on cybersecurity, with guidance and interpretation documents to ensure consistent application.

China is a vice-chair of GRVA and co-chair of the ADS IWG. In February, at the 19th ADS IWG meeting in Shanghai, China's technical proposals on dynamic driving tasks and human-machine interaction were accepted. China also shared data from closed test grounds, public roads and vehicle-road collaborative testing. These contributions fed into the ADS GTR, which was jointly led by China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan.

China's domestic standard, GB 44721-2026, was approved on July 30 and takes effect on July 1, 2027. It covers Level 3 and Level 4 systems for M and N category vehicles, excluding automated parking. Compared with the ADS GTR, the Chinese standard adds more detailed requirements for L3 and L4 safety boundaries, user notification and training, and a unified standardized test scenario system. The ADS GTR relies on the internationally used multi-pillar approach – simulation, track testing, and road testing – while GB 44721 builds on that with standardized scenarios.

This means China is moving faster than many contracting parties in translating the international regulation into binding domestic rules. For global automakers, the gap between the two frameworks matters: compliance with the ADS GTR does not automatically ensure compliance with GB 44721, and vice versa. The GRVA session this week will not resolve that gap, but it will shape how quickly the international regulation becomes operational.

The session report is expected in mid-October. The next key moments are the 27th GRVA session and the 201st WP.29 plenary session in March 2027.