Autonomous vehicles on Slovak roads from 2023!

The Slovak Republic has now adopted legislation that focuses on the technological development for autonomous driving and intelligent mobility. On 8 November 2022, the President of the Slovak Republic signed the Act amending certain laws in relation to the development of automated vehicles.

The approved law, effective from 2 January 2023, represents a subtle but significant step towards the development of operation of autonomous vehicles in Slovakia. The law enshrines definitions such as “automated delivery vehicle”. Additionally, it regulates the conditions for automated delivery vehicle permit holders which must be satisfied during its operation. In order to exclude liability against the artificial intelligence or the autonomous vehicles themselves, the existing definition of “driver” is extended to include a person supervising a vehicle that uses an automated driving system. Under certain conditions, automated delivery vehicles will also be able to drive on pavements and other places where pedestrians can walk, as well as on cycle paths.

In the near future, we will have to get used to possibility that we may encounter autonomously driving vehicles as road users in Slovakia. However, fully autonomous vehicles driving safely and without driver´s intervention or supervision are still a thing of the future.