CCAM legislation study: The Greek pathway

Discussions on the legal framework of Connected Cooperative Automated Mobility (CCAM) have been unfolding in Europe and the rest of the world for at least two decades. In the past, the discussions seemed somehow void. However, the number of today’s real-life pilot operations in the context of numerous national or European funded projects [1] paved the pathway to autonomous mobility legal implementations that proved not trivial at all. As in all major societal changes, pioneers are needed that will pave the way for others to follow either by succeeding or failing to meet the largest vision. In this aspect the work undertaken by the Greek partnership of the national-funded AVINT and EU-funded IN2CCAM projects with the invaluable contribution of the Greek Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Networks in order to facilitate the legal operation of autonomous vehicles in the roads of Trikala is important. It might have not solved definitely the issue of making autonomous passenger transportation commercially legal allowing to uptake a clear governance model but it certainly brought the issue high in the political agenda. More importantly it allowed the Greek public to experience autonomous driving in an everyday life scenario making it appear less futuristic and as a possible viable transportation solution. Within this paper the authors will attempt to explain the entire process followed towards the legal operation of the autonomous vehicles shredding light to a multi-scale working level of authorities (e.g. local, regional, national). It will give and overview of the current practices in the Greek field and will provided important leassons learnt and recommendations for autonomous passenger transportation real-life deployments taking into account legislative, technical, data and operational aspects.