In the new Bill from the BMVI Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur, the computer is put on the exact same footing in German road legislation as a human driver.

Transport secretary Alexander Dobrindt claims this gives Germany the world’s most modern road legislation. Dobrindt dubbed automated driving "the biggest revolution in mobility since the invention of the motorcar."

The Bill allows for highly or fully automated driving systems to take over completely, thus enabling the human driver to have his hands free for other tasks. By way of example, BMVI named texting messages, checking emails or WhatsApp, except that in future the lorry or motorcar will stay in the correct lane!

The draft law stipulates that the driver must take over in situations where the autopilot cannot cope, for example in the case of a puncture. An onboard blackbox will be obligatory, so the authorities can check whether the driver did in fact assume control when legally required to do so.

The draft law is another step in Germany’s campaign to digitise its motorways. In June last year Dobrindt set in motion the creation of a "Digital Testfield Motorway," with the A9 motorway in Bavaria set to become the first "intelligent and fully digitised road" thanks to comprehensive radar-based traffic guidance.

A contract has been signed with Siemens AG and Infineon Technologies AG to provide precise real-time data on traffic flows, density, speed and behaviour. Data from the radar-based system will be made available for innovators, industrial or scientific, including start-ups, to help them create digital applications for automated and/or web based driving.

Next to safety, more efficient use of the motorways’ capacity is another key goal.

In the initial phase, due to start in April 2017, data transmitted from some 10 new surveillance stations will generate individual vehicles’ fast lane recommendations based upon their payload, destination and speed. ‘Intelligent speed limits’ and early warning systems are among the other results sought.

The BMVI stresses that the A9 motorway testfield is accessible to national and international enterprises that want to test innovative systems and technologies. The first such initiatives have meanwhile commenced, including extreme to-the-centimetre precise mapping of a stretch of the A9 and car-to-car communications through the future 5G mobile standard.