Policy and regulationTransport and logistics
France sets 2027 approval doctrine as autonomous transport policy shifts toward deployment
At an industry meeting on 23 October, the transport ministry outlined a stepwise vehicle approval doctrine and priorities for safety, underserved areas and technological sovereignty.
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- First published on EPC Feed
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France’s transport ministry used its 23 October Assises du véhicule autonome to set out the next steps it intends to take on automated road mobility. The event brought together 250 participants from industry, transport authorities, local governments, professional bodies, unions, academia and transport operators, according to the ministry. The gathering focused on moving from experiments toward operational and commercial services while retaining what the government described as a demanding safety framework.
The ministry said it would develop a national doctrine for approving autonomous vehicles during the first half of 2027. Work will be led under the Centre national de réception des véhicules, the national vehicle approval centre. The described approach is staged validation, with safety monitored throughout a vehicle’s life. The ministry framed this as a way to give manufacturers more visibility about operational requirements and timing; it did not publish the doctrine itself or specify a final approval timetable for individual vehicles.
The announcement builds on a national strategy first adopted in 2018. A 2023 government strategy update described its guiding principles as safety, gradual deployment and acceptability, with development grounded in uses judged technically and economically achievable. It placed priority on public or shared transport that complements high-capacity networks. The October 2026 statement says more than 200 experiments have taken place across France since the initial strategy. That count is a government-reported cumulative figure, not a measure of commercial services now operating.
For local transport, the ministry said deployment should respond to needs in rural and peri-urban places, improve connections to major routes and supplement existing networks where service is insufficient. It emphasised that local authorities and mobility organising bodies should shape deployments because they understand local conditions. The statement also included last-mile urban logistics among the themes discussed at the meeting. It did not announce a new funding award, construction contract or procurement for a particular service or location.
The government linked deployment to industrial mobilisation and technological sovereignty, while describing road safety and access to transport as expected policy benefits. Those are policy objectives, not measured outcomes. The 2023 strategy document similarly connected automation with vehicle and infrastructure connectivity, logistics use cases, industrialisation and commercial development. It set a then-stated target of 100 to 500 automated passenger transport services without an onboard operator by 2030. That target appeared in the earlier strategy, not as a new target announced at the October 2026 Assises.
The ministry also set the work in a European context. It said France was pursuing cooperation on autonomous mobility and referred to the European “test site” initiative, intended to harmonise and simplify authorisation processes. Its statement described a common framework as a goal for moving beyond isolated experiments toward real-world deployment. The ministry noted that 22 countries had signed a joint statement, including Norway, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The October statement presents cross-border alignment as complementary to French approval work; it does not mean the approval doctrine is already harmonised or in force across Europe.
The announcement therefore marks a policy work programme rather than the launch of a fleet. The next concrete item identified is the national approval doctrine expected in the first half of 2027. The government says that doctrine will use staged validation and continued safety monitoring, and that European exchanges will accompany the work. Until those details are published, the ministry’s 23 October release is the source for the planned direction and timetable; it provides no named manufacturers, vehicle models, service start dates, project budgets or awarded contracts.
Sources
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