On April 18, 2018, the Ministry Decree 2 February 2018 on the technological trial solutions to adapt the Italian infrastructure network to new smart services and automatic vehicles, issued by the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport, under article no.1, par. o. 72 of Law 27 December 2017, no. 2015 (the New Budget Law 2018), was published on the Official Journal. 

The Smart Road Decree aims at improving the national road network through its gradual digital transformation, with the purpose of making it suitable for the interaction with new generation connected vehicles, implementation of the most advanced levels of automatic driving assistance, and reduction of traffic and road accidents.

Related to automatic guided vehicles, the Smart Road Decree states that vehicle manufacturer equipped with automatic driving technologies, as well as universities and public and private research institutions may request the authorization for the experimentation on the road of automatic guided vehicles, if they respect the specific conditions set out by the Ministry. The new rules, in fact, set out the measuers related to the investigation that must be carried out, the means by which the authorization is issued and the controls to which the experimentation activity is subject, with the aim of ensuring that the experimentation is carried out in conditions of absolute safety

Moreover, the Decree states interventions on the infrastructures belonging to the TEN-T network (Trans European Network - Transport) and, in any case, on the entire motorway network, by 2015, which include measures related to the communication of high bit-rate data (eg: fiber),  the coverage of the whole road infrastructure with routing connection services to the data communication network, hot-spot Wifi  system for the connectivity of citizens' devices, located at least in all service and parking areas, a system to detect traffic and weather conditions and provide medium-short term forecasts.

The Decree lays down, in addition, that other measures which concern the flows diversion services in case of serious accidents / obstructions;  intervention on average speeds in order to avoid or solve congestions; suggestion of trajectories and lanes; dynamic management of accesses, as well as parking and supply management (with particular reference to electric charging) will be activated, by 2030.

Avv. Silvia Giampaolo

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