Automated driving laws in Switzerland

Transportation, Travel and Trips
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Update today from ASTRA (federal office for roads). From 01.03.2025 it will be legal to use:

  • Automated driving in motorways. That system where the car control system drives but warns the driver to take over when it’s not able to decide what to do.
  • Fully automated vehicles (driverless), but connected to control room where a human can take over if the vehicle control system cannot decide what to do.
  • Automated driving in parkings.

The Federal Council enables automated driving

Automated vehicles can increase road safety and improve traffic flow. They also open up new opportunities for the economy and for transport service providers. At its meeting on December 13, 2024, the Federal Council passed the ordinance regulating automated driving. It will come into force on March 1, 2025.

The video is also in FR and IT on the ASTRA website:

If I remember well, Tesla retired some features from their cars because it did not comply with local regulations. It will be back. Beyond Tesla, I think only Mercedes has a comparable system in some models.

The rest of automated driving systems (as offered today) are limited to 50-60 kmh since they’re aimed at traffic jams (boring driving). GM has Super Cruise for motorways, but not many Cadillacs or GMCs around here, borderline irrelevant.

Let’s see what happens after March 2025. Looking forward to the insurance claims numbers by the end of next year.

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In 2022 Tesla added the need to indicate and slightly shift the steering wheel when Full Self Driving mode (FSD) suggested to overtake on motorway, as a result of those laws.

Let’s see if they revert it now, and if so, how long it will take them.

FSD outside of North America is still a complete misnomer. I’m amazed there aren’t a lot of class action lawsuits demanding a return of the money spent. When I took delivery of my Tesla, in June 2022, it was clearly stated, coming soon, full self driving on city streets. I think they eventually removed this wording, but I see no prospect of proper FSD outside of motorways here or in most of Europe any time soon.

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Since when are traffic jams boring?

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