The LOM, known as the Mobility Orientation Law, published in the official journal on 26 December 2019, is a thorough reform of mobility policies. This law aims to :

The CARA competitiveness cluster and its members are involved in the development of this new mobility solution: manufacturers of autonomous shuttles, experimentation, transport operators, etc.

Thanks to this Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) published on 26 December 2019, France is one of the first European countries to adopt a legislative and regulatory framework allowing the circulation of these vehicles by 2022.

The legislative and regulatory framework for the circulation of automated vehicles is based in part on Article 31 of the Loi d’Orientations des Mobilités (LOM). This article allows the Government to draw up the regulatory framework for the circulation of automated vehicles without a driver on board used as part of an organised passenger transport service on a predefined route or area.

Article 32 sets out the legislative and regulatory framework for data relating to automation systems.

Article 31 empowers the Government to construct the regulatory framework allowing the circulation of automated vehicles on public roads in France. These vehicles may be private cars, public transport vehicles, delivery vehicles and goods transport vehicles.

The ordinance published in application of this law, and its related decrees and orders, allows the circulation of automated vehicles, thanks to an adapted liability regime, by setting safety requirements (Article 1 of the ordinance)

This framework will cover high levels of automation, whose systems are capable of handling all driving situations in their field of use, without driver intervention, or when the operator is located outside the vehicle.

In particular, this ordinance sets out the liability regimes (motorist, manufacturer, system designer), especially in situations where the automated driving system is activated. Indeed, the driver is not criminally liable “for offences resulting from the operation of a vehicle whose driving functions are delegated to an automated driving system, where this system exercises dynamic control of the vehicle at the time of the event […]”.

On the other hand, the driver must remain alert when the delegation of driving functions is activated and “must remain constantly in a position to respond to a request to take control of the automated driving system”, He is liable if “he exercises dynamic control of the vehicle following a takeover” and if “the summonses, injunctions or indications given by the forces of law and order or the rules of priority for the passage of [emergency vehicles]” are not complied with or if the takeover request proposed by the vehicle has not been honoured.

A particular feature of this order is that “during periods when the automated driving system exercises dynamic control of the vehicle in accordance with its conditions of use”, it is the manufacturer who is criminally liable in the event of an offence “when a manoeuvre [is] carried out by the automated driving system exercising dynamic control of the vehicle in accordance with its conditions of use”.

The text also sets out the procedures for accessing data from the traffic data recorder, depending on the situation.

The publication of this ordinance will be accompanied by its related decrees and orders setting out the conditions for the validation and operation of automated public or shared passenger transport systems on predefined routes, based on safety demonstration standards, the first of which are already in progress.

Article 32 empowers the Government to legislate by ordinance to ensure that data from “connected” vehicles and driver assistants is made available to law enforcement agencies and fire and rescue services.

Data management, which is becoming central to the design, validation, learning and operation of automated mobility systems and services. The regulatory framework resulting from the Loi d’Orientation des Mobilités (Mobility Orientation Law) mainly concerns the use of learning and validation data and the use of data by public authorities; its implementation will closely involve the stakeholders, first and foremost local authorities, while ensuring consistency with the European and international framework.

The empowerment also aims to create a non-discriminatory framework for access to certain vehicle data for the private sector, enabling the development of new services.

It also provides for an empowerment to build a framework allowing the circulation of highly automated vehicles as well as provisions allowing the use of connected vehicle data in an appropriate framework.