The World’s First Global Rules for Driverless Cars: A Turning Point for Autonomous Mobility
For more than a decade, autonomous vehicles have been presented as one of the most transformative technologies of the twenty-first century. Technology companies and vehicle manufacturers have repeatedly predicted a future in which cars navigate cities, transport passengers and respond to traffic without human intervention. Although major progress has been made, the widespread adoption of fully driverless vehicles has developed more slowly than many early forecasts suggested. The challenge has not been limited to sensors, artificial intelligence or computing power. One of the greatest obstacles has been the absence of a common international framework defining how an autonomous vehicle should demonstrate that it is safe. That situation is now beginning to change. On 24 June 2026, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe announced that the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, known as WP.29, had approved the first global regulatory framework for fully automated d...