The now completed roadmap and action plan 2016–2020 for automated road traffic contain a large number of measures, which have been divided into five categories. These are: infrastructure; road pavement and equipment; vehicle systems; services and functions; and driver. More than a hundred measures were proposed for 2016-2017 alone – so much remains to be done.

“This is the first national report in the world on automated driving. The measures proposed in it and directly related to the road network concern road marking, positioning, data transmission between the infrastructure and vehicle, and the testing areas involved in this”, said Risto Kulmala, Leading ITS Specialist at the Finnish Transport Agency.

In 2015 the Finnish Transport Agency and Trafi initiated the roadmap and action plan as well as the preparatory studies for automated road traffic. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd was chosen to compile the report. In addition to this more than a hundred commercial or government organisations participated in the work by attending various workshops.

“The subject was also widely discussed from the driver’s standpoint as well as from the perspective of the vehicle and its systems. Examples of this are driver instruction, driving licence, availability of data on vehicle equipment and features, safe data transmission and technical approval of the vehicle”, said Anna Schirokoff at Trafi.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has outlined that Finland should be at the forefront when it comes to being prepared for automated road traffic and in utilising the possibilities opened up by this. Road traffic automation progresses rapidly by utilising the sensors and driver support systems in vehicles. The transport authorities play an important part in enabling automated driving.

(Source: FTA)