Canada signs on, but must develop its own domestic rules for self-driving technology within the new framework

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.

Adopted twice

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 obliges Transport Canada to move toward a domestic Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard built on the new global text, rather than simply accepting foreign approvals at the border.

Public consultation

The department is already laying that groundwork. 

Earlier this year, Transport Canada ran a public consultation from March to May, seeking input from Canadians and road-safety stakeholders on the draft UN regulation before it reached Geneva. 

Officials asked whether the rules were flexible enough to keep pace with fast-moving technology and whether Canadian driving conditions — winter highways, rural stretches, mixed traffic — raised safety risks the global text might miss.

The UN rules require an automated system’s driving performance to match or beat that of a competent human driver, with manufacturers required to prove it through simulation, closed-track testing and real-world trials, backed by an audited safety management system and data recorders. 

WP.29 also updated roughly 90 existing UN vehicle regulations to cover cars built without traditional driver controls.

The rules are expected to take effect within about a month, with broader enforcement anticipated by January 2027. Automakers in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Japan, the U.K. and China have already signaled support.

SAE levels of autonomy

The technical regulations cites SAE International as the source for six levels of autonomous driving:

• Level 0 (No automation): Driver assumes all control
• Level 1 (Driver assistance): The system controls either steering or acceleration/braking, but not both simultaneously 
• Level 2 (Partial Automation): The system controls both steering and acceleration/braking simultaneously. The driver must retain control of the vehicle.
• Level 3 (Conditional Automation): The automated driving system performs all driving tasks under specific conditions. The driver is required to supervise and remain alert to take control at any time.
• Level 4 (High Automation): The vehicle can perform all driving tasks and monitor the environment entirely on its own within specific operational areas. The driver is not required to supervise.
• Level 5 (Full Automation): The vehicle can drive itself under all road, weather and traffic conditions. Human control is not required. The vehicle may even lack human controls.