Safe Drive Initiative: Creating safe autonomous vehicle policy

The World Economic Forum's Safe Drive Initiative examines the fragmented landscape of autonomous vehicle (AV) policy, contrasting 'light-touch' self-certification in the US and 'code of practice' approaches in the UK with Singapore's 'heavy-touch' operational safety assessments. It argues that current policies are largely temporary measures for testing and lack standardized safety metrics. The report advocates for a transition toward scenario-based assessments—evaluating vehicle behavior within specific operational design domains (ODD) through simulation, test tracks, and on-road trials—to ensure public safety and build trust as AVs move toward commercial deployment.

• Global AV policy is fragmented and lacks consensus on safety milestones because safety is dependent on the specific operating environment.
• The United States employs a decentralized, self-certification approach where the federal government remains technology-neutral, leading to a regulatory patchwork across states. California requires detailed safety cases and disengagement reporting, while Arizona has a highly permissive environment that requires only basic attestations.
• The United Kingdom utilizes a non-regulatory 'Code of Practice' to facilitate testing without formal permits, provided a safety driver is present, supported by a top-down national strategy to lead in connected and automated vehicles.
• Singapore implements a proactive, 'heavy-touch' operational safety assessment involving a tiered evaluation programme with three specific milestones and corresponding technical reference standards.
• Commonly used safety metrics, such as the disengagement reports required by the California DMV, are widely criticized by industry and academia as insufficient indicators of technology maturity or safety.
• The report proposes a scenario-based assessment framework that evaluates an AV's behavioral competencies within its Operational Design Domain (ODD) using a combination of simulation, controlled test tracks, and on-road testing.

APA

World Economic Forum (2020). Safe Drive Initiative: Creating safe autonomous vehicle policy. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_SafeDI_creating_safe_AV_policy_2020.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Safe Drive Initiative: Creating safe autonomous vehicle policy. 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_SafeDI_creating_safe_AV_policy_2020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Safe Drive Initiative: Creating safe autonomous vehicle policy |date=October 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_SafeDI_creating_safe_AV_policy_2020.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2020safe, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Safe Drive Initiative: Creating safe autonomous vehicle policy}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_SafeDI_creating_safe_AV_policy_2020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }