Self-driving cars may be allowed on the roads of the Russian Federation from 2027

The Russian Ministry of Transport has developed a draft federal law that defines the conditions for the admission of highly automated vehicles (VATS) to highways and tramways throughout Russia. If adopted, it will enter into force on September 1, 2027, according to a document published on the federal portal of draft regulatory legal acts on January 21.

Currently, experimental regulation related to the operation of VATS is in effect on the territory of several regions of the country. The Ministry of Transport analyzed the interim results of the experimental legal regimes (EPR) and developed provisions to consolidate the possibility of safe operation of unmanned vehicles at the federal level.

"The adoption of the draft federal law after the expiration of the experimental legal regimes No. 1849 and No. 2495 will make it possible to "legalize" the movement of WATS on all highways and tramways of the Russian Federation. It is expected that by 2050 Russia will become a leader in the introduction of unmanned technologies, and 50% of all vehicles will be unmanned," the explanatory note says.

It states that the validity period of these EPR expires in 2028, and therefore the movement of the WATTS in case of non-adoption of the bill will become impossible.

It is expected that the widespread use of self-driving cars in the Russian Federation will increase the speed of cargo delivery by 30%, reduce the risk of accidents by 20%, and reduce fuel and component costs. Savings per year in the absence of a driver at the wheel will amount to about 16 million rubles with a fleet of 100 watts (the plan until 2030 is 1,700 watts), the document says.

Now unmanned trucks are involved on the M-11 Neva and TSKAD highways, and in 2026 they are planned to be launched on the M-12 Vostok highway, Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin said earlier in January. Yandex unmanned taxis are also used in a number of regions.

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On October 2, the Russian government announced that statistics on the actual mileage of cargo drones plying the M-11 and the Central Ring Road would become public. The data about it will be disclosed by the Ministry of Transport and GLONASS JSC.

Before that, on August 13, it became known that an autonomous Navio tractor covered the 1,600 km St. Petersburg-Kazan route in a day. The truck drove along the M-11 Neva, A-113 Central Ring Road and M-12 Vostok highways in 24 hours. At the same time, a standard flight from St. Petersburg to Kazan takes an average of 58 hours, as the driver must comply with the work and rest regime.

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