Canada signs on, but must develop its own domestic rules for self-driving technology within the new framework A new set of rules adopted by the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations sets common international benchmarks for automated driving systems. – iStock The United Nations has signed off on the world’s first global safety rules for fully self-driving cars. As a result, Canada will have to build its own domestic rules for the technology within the next few years. The new framework, adopted by the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), sets common international benchmarks for automated driving systems, or ADS — vehicles capable of handling every driving task, from steering to signaling, without a human behind the wheel. Richard Damm, chair of the UNECE Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) group behind the proposal, told Agence France-Presse that “This is a really big step.” “It’s very important, as automation will be one of the future technologies we will see on the road,” he said. Under international vehicle law, the identical text was adopted twice in two separate votes, so it could be folded into two different UN treaties. More than half of the 62 countries party to a 1958 agreement backed the rules unanimously; that treaty lets a car approved in one member country be sold in the others without further checks. Canada isn’t part of that 1958 pact. Instead, Ottawa was among 13 countries — alongside the United States and China — that voted separately to fold the same rules into a companion 1998 agreement, one that sets shared technical standards, but doesn’t carry the same automatic cross-border sales recognition. Because Ottawa is a signatory to the 1998 agreement, adoption of the UN regulation