Automated vehicle program

On 21 November 2025, Transport Ministers agreed to allow the conditional deployment of automated vehicles from 2027 in selected locations, with full national readiness to follow. This timeline will depend on each state and territory updating its legislation and building the necessary capabilities to support safe and lawful operation.

Australia’s current road laws apply to vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), such as lane keeping and adaptive cruise control, with a human driver remaining in control. In preparation for automated vehicles, new laws will be needed that will apply to any vehicles that can drive themselves without human input. While there are trials being conducted both here and overseas, automated vehicles are not yet available commercially or for general use on public roads in Australia.

The NTC is working in close partnership with the Australian Government and state and territory governments to develop nationally consistent laws. These laws will govern the supply and use of automated vehicles across the country. We’re working towards national on-road readiness for automated vehicles. This will begin with conditional deployment in selected locations from 2027.
 

We use the SAE J3016 criteria as the foundation for how we discuss and categorise driving automation. This independent, international standard defines the different levels of vehicle automation and provides examples of features at each level.

Our Automated Vehicle Program is focused on the safe introduction of vehicles operating at SAE levels 3–5. In these vehicles, a human driver is not required to proactively monitor the driving environment while the automated driving system is operating. While these are being trialled in Australia and overseas, they are not yet available commercially or in general use on public roads in Australia.

We’ve also created a video that explains vehicle automation in more detail.

Before automated vehicles can safely and legally operate in Australia, laws and regulations must be updated to help manage their safe and seamless integration with existing road systems.

The NTC leads a national program to develop a regulatory framework for automated vehicles, align and update relevant laws, and draft model legislation to ensure consistency between states and territories. 

With support from state and territory governments and the NTC, the Australian Government is:

• Incorporating new safety criteria into the existing regulatory framework for ‘first provision’ of vehicles into Australia under the Road Vehicle Standards Act 2018 (Cth).
• Developing a new, national Automated Vehicle Safety Law (AVSL) to regulate the safety of automated vehicles while they are in service. 
  The AVSL will establish safety duties, recognise new legal entities, and create an in-service safety regulator. Once introduced, it will need to be supported by complementary state, and territory legislation.

NTC maintains the Australian Road Rules, which are model laws that form the basis of the road rules in each Australian state and territory. The current Australian Road Rules have been developed with vehicles categorised as SAE automation levels 0–2 in mind. For the most part, each state and territory has copied the Rules into their own road safety and traffic laws. Our Automated Vehicle Program is focused on updating the Australian Road Rules to accommodate automated vehicles, classified as those operating at SAE levels 3 and above.

Each state and territory also has laws covering areas such as enforcement, insurance, and registration which govern how vehicles operate on public roads. Updates to these laws form part of our Automated Vehicle Program.
 

Australian governments support the safe, controlled testing of AVs on public roads through state and territory-based trial frameworks. Trials of AVs have already been conducted by a wide range of industry and research bodies across Australia under these arrangements.

Ongoing trialling of AVs is important to support industry in developing and refining the technology. Trials also help to educate the Australian community in how AVs will work when they are eventually introduced to Australia.

To support industry and research bodies seeking to trial automated vehicle technologies, the NTC has partnered with Austroads to publish guidelines on typical requirements for conducting an AV trial in Australia. These guidelines are updated regularly and aim to support nationally consistent trialling conditions for AVs.

Guidelines for trials of automated vehicles in Australia:

• Read more about the guidelines, and requirements for conducting trials in Australia
• Download the guidelines
• Download the research report on lessons learned from AV trials in Australia
   

The NTC leads national land transport reform. We do this in close partnership with Commonwealth, state and territory governments.

Our government partners in the AV Program are:

• The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts
• Transport for NSW 
• Victorian Department of Transport and Planning
• Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads
• Main Roads Western Australia 
• South Australian Department for Infrastructure and Transport
• Tasmanian Department of State Growth
• City Services ACT
• Northern Territory Department of Logistics and Infrastructure

Our AV program has already reached a number of key milestones.

• Key decisions were made in 2019 regarding Motor accident injury insurance and automated vehicles
• In 2022, Australian governments agreed on key aspects of the national framework, including that in-service safety of AVs will be governed by a new national law. You can read more here: Establishing an in-service safety regulatory regime for automated vehicles
• Work in 2023 explored the challenges of on-road enforcement of AVS. You can read more here: Developing a nationally consistent approach to on-road enforcement for automated vehicles
• In 2024, the NTC conducted a public consultation in partnership with the Australian Government on the obligations of human user of AVs and other selected topics. You can read more details here: Our consultation on automated vehicle safety reform
   

If you’d like to express interest in the program, or ask us a question about our work, we’d like to hear from you.

You can contact us at automatedvehicles@ntc.gov.au.