86. The World Forum was informed by the secretariat of the Working Party of Road Safety (WP.1) about the outcome of the WP.1 March 2016 session on issues of common interest for WP.1 and WP.29. Focus had been on two issues (a) the ongoing amendment proposals to Annex 5 of the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic dealing with the provisions for the lighting and light-signaling devices to be harmonized with those under the 1958 Agreement and (b) the amendment proposals to the 1949 Convention on Road Traffic. As concerns the latter, WP.1 noted that, due to different legal procedures, the corresponding amendments to the 1949 Convention could not be successfully adopted; WP.29 was informed that WP.1 consequently might further review how the 1968 and 1949 Conventions can remain aligned, as needed.

87. The representative from Finland, ambassador of both the IWG on ITS/AD (see ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1118 para. 92) and the new Informal Group of Experts on Autonomous Driving under WP.1 reported on the important progress achieved during the first meetings of this new Informal Group of Experts of WP.1. The Group had met three times as of April 2016. He reported that (a) the group had assessed that no amendment to the Convention(s) was necessary to allow for the testing of driverless vehicles on public roads, (b) discussions are continuing on the need to further amend the Conventions to address high levels of automation, and (c) the group was dealing with interpretations of road traffic conventions for new technologies already on the market, including remote controlled parking and semi-autonomous motorway driving.