France has allowed hands-free driving with Level 3 autonomous vehicles.
In Germany, level 3 driving is already permitted. A corresponding Law was already adopted in 2017. Even level 4 is already possible in this country. However, so far there is only one manufacturer that offers a Level 3 vehicle: Mercedes Benz, the first in this year came onto the market. Each manufacturer is allowed to bring 1,500 vehicles of this type onto the market.
This has also been allowed in France since last Thursday. This means that you can take your hands off the steering wheel in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic and entrust control to the vehicle. During this time you can, unlike with Tesla at level 2, dedicate to other things. However, you have to be able to take control of the vehicle again at any time.
The fronts are also changing on the question of liability. In the event of an accident, the manufacturer of the car must be held responsible. The path of the vehicle must be separated from other roads and the path must be closed to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Initially, the vehicles are not allowed to drive faster than 60 kilometers per hour, but the UN-ECE has already set the speed 130 kilometers per hour raised. As soon as this regulation has been transposed into national law, the maximum speed permitted in France will also increase.