The sixteenth GRVA Workshop on ADS was held online on 20 March 2026 with 52 participants. The workshop adopted the agenda and minutes of the previous workshop. Experts presented updates on the guidance document covering testing provisions, In-Service Monitoring and Reporting, user interactions, Operational Design Domain, approval sections, and Safety Management System. The next workshop would be organized as a joint meeting with the IWG on ADS in Bangkok.

Proposal to amend guidance on continuous improvement processes in para. 7.1.8.2. by inserting text stating that post-deployment safety analyses are systematically performed for all occurrences; however, their conclusions do not necessarily result in the identification of a corrective action from the manufacturer, modifying text to state that not all identified corrective or preventive actions need to be implemented in order to close an occurrence, and replacing text to state decisions on what to address and how are based on an overall assessment of the consequences and the impact of implementing a change.

Proposal to amend explanatory text for UNR paragraph 3.2.3. (b) to clarify that the manufacturer should explain how they determine and apply the concept of the safety level of the ADS being at least to the level of a competent and careful human driver, accounting for national specificities, and that there may be different approaches used in applying this concept, including reference driver based approaches and behaviour-based approaches.

The Eighteenth GRVA Workshop on ADS will be held on 1 June 2026 from 12:30–14:30 Geneva time online via MS Teams. The workshop will adopt the provisional agenda and minutes of the 16th GRVA workshop on ADS. Participants will receive briefing on highlights from the informal part of the 25th GRVA held in Montreal from 18–22 May 2026. The workshop will review the timeline for delivering the Guidance and Interpretation Document as an informal document at the 200th WP.29 session and as an official document for consideration at the March 2027 session. OPIs will inform participants on their development activities for the guidance and interpretation document.

For the purposes of type approval under any UN Regulation requiring the verification of the timing of a system intervention, manufacturers shall provide to the approval authority or its designated technical service information on the method by which the initiation of any system intervention can be objectively identified and retrieved, including specific flags, status bits, event codes on in-vehicle networks, or visual indications on screens; clear instructions and all necessary tools for the Technical Service to extract, access and interpret the signal identifying the initiation; documented procedures including corresponding data sources, resolution, and timing accuracy appended to the type approval test report; and, where a visual indication displayed on a screen is used, documented latency between the earliest internal point at which the system initiates the function and the moment the visual indication becomes visible on the screen, expressed as a fixed value with associated uncertainty, with the documented latency value used to correct the observed timing of the screen indication appended to the type approval test report.

The document requests guidance on the legal basis for provisions within UN Regulations extending beyond the End-of-Production date and which authority such provisions address. Examples include UN R171 requirements for manufacturers to demonstrate safety management systems to the Type Approval Authority every three years and report annually on Driven Coded Auxiliary System operation until production is discontinued, and UN R155 requirements for Cyber Security Management Systems to apply to the post-production phase when vehicles remain operational but are no longer produced. The document poses an additional question regarding vehicle safety when manufacturers cease operations and cannot fulfill post-deployment safety provisions.

The CS/OTA Task Force held its thirty-seventh session on 21-22 April 2026 by video conference. The group adopted the provisional agenda and minutes from the thirty-sixth session. Discussions addressed proposals for amendments to UN R155 concerning multi-stage vehicle approvals and separate technical units, for which a subworking group was established. Proposals were also considered on type approval authority responsibility for cyber security management systems and remote operation of automated driving systems. The group reviewed cyber and software requirements in the ADS GTR and WP.29/2022/60 as amended by WP.29/2023/87, and discussed application of RXSWIN to UN Regulations, selecting option 2 for presentation to GRVA with R155, R156, and R89 square bracketed. The IWG mandate renewal was discussed, with potential new items including component and STU approval and software numbering proposals.

Proposal to develop UN GTR for both assisted and automated parking. The document presents parking product classifications in China, including assisted parking (park-in/park-out, cruising capability, remote-control variants) and automated parking systems. Current UN Regulations lack specific technical requirements, test methods, and test scenarios for parking functions. China is developing national standards GB for parking combined driver assistance systems and automated parking systems, with approval expected by end of 2026 and early 2027 respectively. The proposal suggests establishing a Task Force to study applicability of current UN Regulations to parking products, then determining whether to establish an IWG or formulate new regulations.

Proposal to amend ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2026/137 to replace placeholder text “[ADS]”, “[XXX]”, and “[number of this Regulation]” with the UN Regulation number upon adoption, amend the cross-reference in paragraph 1.2. to “7.2.3.17.”, amend paragraph 6.2.2.3.8.1. subparagraph (b) to specify gaze directed to “the” driving task relevant area, remove brackets around “7.4.” in paragraph 11.2., add a period after the number in Annex 1 paragraph 5.1., amend Annex 1 Appendix 1 paragraphs 1.4.5. and 1.4.7., renumber paragraphs 1.4.12., 1.4.12.1., and 1.4.12.2. as 1.4.11.5., 1.4.11.5.1., and 1.4.11.5.2., amend Annex 1 Appendix 2, amend Annex 7 table 5 rows 1 and 2 column 7, remove brackets in Annex 8 paragraphs 5.3.1. and 5.3.2., and insert “Mandatory” in Annex 8 table row 1 column 2.

Proposal to amend WP.29/2026/139 to amend para. 4.2.2.3.8.1. subparagraph (b) regarding user engagement to resume the DDT, insert new para. 5.2.1.8.1. requiring manufacturers to document simulation toolchain scope and limitations, amend para. 5.2.1.3.1. regarding manufacturer management of relevant data, amend para. 5.3.1.16. describing ADS responses to failure situations, amend para. 6.3.2.2.3. regarding scenario assessment, amend para. 6.3.3.3.1. regarding confirmatory track testing provisions, amend Annex 5 Tables 3, 4, and 5 regarding scenario specifications and risk manoeuvre conditions, and amend Annex 6 para. 5.3.1. and 5.3.2. regarding DSSAD recording requirements and intervals.

The ADS informal working group status report to GRVA documents progress since the 24th GRVA session in January 2026. The group accepted proposals to make minor amendments to GTR and UNR, and accepted proposals to amend GTR and UNR to introduce DSSAD provisions. Working documents WP.29/2026/139 (GTR) and WP.29/2026/137 (UNR) were submitted for WP.29’s 199th session. For the 25th GRVA session, GRVA-25-21 and GRVA-25-22 were submitted as informal documents to amend WP.29/2026/137 and WP.29/2026/139. GRVA seeks a 3-year extension of the IWG-ADS mandate, with revised Terms of Reference to be prepared for GRVA-26 in September 2026.

Since the 24th session of GRVA, the Workshops on Automated Driving Systems held four sessions, with meetings in Shanghai and Bangkok. Administrative requirements for the draft UNR/GTR ADS require no further discussion. Task 3 developed interpretations and guidance for implementation, consolidated in a draft Guidance and Interpretation Document presented as informal document GRVA-25-20, with remaining items for refinement at a July Brussels hybrid joint IWG/WS session. The GID will be made available in English, French, and Russian, with the IWG ADS maintaining it. Formal adoption is projected for November WP.29 following September GRVA discussion.

This document is a draft Guidance and Interpretation Document (GID) for UN Global Technical Regulation and UN Regulation on Automated Driving Systems, based on GRVA/2026/3 as amended by GRVA-24-29 and WP.29-198-09. The GID provides explanatory text, guidance, and examples to support implementation of ADS requirements without introducing new obligations. It covers scope, definitions, application for approval, approval procedures, ADS performance requirements in nominal, critical, and failure situations, interactions between ADS and users, safety management systems, test environments including simulation credibility frameworks, safety case requirements, post-deployment safety monitoring with reportable occurrences, and compliance assessment procedures. The document clarifies terminology including operational states of ADS features, critical occurrences, driving situations, and mitigated risk conditions, and provides detailed guidance on ODD definition, safety case structure, confirmatory testing approaches, and in-service reporting templates with threshold definitions for critical occurrences.

This Guidance and Interpretation Document (GID), based on GRVA/2026/3 as amended by GRVA-24-29 and WP.29-198-09, supports implementation of proposed UN Global Technical Regulation and UN Regulation on Automated Driving Systems. The GID, structured in table format with regulatory text and explanatory guidance with examples, facilitates interpretation of ADS requirements when applying them to particular vehicles or vehicle types. The document addresses ADS safety, system descriptions, operational design domains, performance in nominal, critical, and failure situations, interactions between ADS and users, manufacturer safety management systems, test environments including simulation credibility frameworks, safety cases, post-deployment safety monitoring, and compliance assessments including confirmatory testing. Materials will be restructured and refined for submission to GRVA’s September 2026 session.

Proposal to amend para. 137 to describe the seventeenth workshop organized in Bangkok, Thailand, together with the twentieth session of the IWG on ADS, where participants reviewed updates to the GID document sections prepared by the OPIs, resulting in a revised version of the GID document considered mature enough for presentation at the twenty-fifth GRVA session, with agreement that remaining open items should be finalized at the July 2026 workshop in Brussels, Belgium, and several minor amendments to the draft GTR/UN-R text derived from the Bangkok meeting discussions modified the text of the draft GTR/UN-R.

The Informal Working Group on Automated Driving Systems identified topics for future consideration organized into four lists: items not addressed in original versions of the GTR/UNR; existing items requiring amendment or improvement; items relating to operational implementation; and other items. List 1 includes remote assistance, ODD description taxonomy, external human-machine interface provisions, and connectivity considerations. List 2 includes ADS to ADAS transitions, Data Storage Systems for Automated Driving, ADS deactivation, in-service monitoring and reporting, and safety case requirements. List 3 addresses interpretation document improvements, mutual recognition provisions review, system updates and thresholds, and practical implementation of in-service monitoring. List 4 includes text streamlining to remove duplication and improve clarity.

Since January 2026, the group accepted proposals ADS-20-15, ADS-20-16, and ADS-20-48/Rev.1 for minor amendments. Working documents WP.29/2026/139 and WP.29/2026/137 were submitted for WP.29’s 199th session. Two informal documents (ADS-20-59 and ADS-20-60) will amend these working documents. GRVA seeks a three-year mandate extension for the informal group to address identified future work items beyond June 2026.

Proposal to amend ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2026/137: replace “[ADS]”, “[XXX]”, and “[number of this Regulation]” with the UN Regulation number upon adoption throughout Contents, Appendices, and Annexes; amend para. 1.2. cross-reference to read “7.2.3.17.”; amend para. 6.2.2.3.8.1.(b) to specify gaze directed to “the” driving task relevant area; remove brackets around “7.4.” in para. 11.2.; add period after number in Annex 1 para. 5.1.; amend Annex 1 Appendix 1 paras. 1.4.5., 1.4.7., and renumber 1.4.12., 1.4.12.1., 1.4.12.2. as 1.4.11.5., 1.4.11.5.1., 1.4.11.5.2.; amend Annex 7 table 5 rows 1–2 column 7 to replace “minimal risk manoeuvre” with “fallback to a mitigated risk condition”; remove brackets in Annex 8 para. 5.3.1. and amend para. 5.3.2. table to insert “Mandatory” in row 1.

Proposal to amend WP.29/2026/139 to amend para. 4.2.2.3.8.1. subparagraph (b) to replace “a the driving task relevant area” with “the driving task relevant area”, amend para. 6.3.2.2.3. to replace “approval authority” with “assessment”, amend Annex 5 table 5 rows 1 and 2 column 7 to replace “minimal risk manoeuvre” with “fallback to a mitigated risk condition” and remove brackets around deceleration threshold from ⁴ m/s², remove brackets in Annex 6 para. 5.3.1., and amend Annex 6 para. 5.3.2. table to insert “Mandatory” in row 1 column 2 and remove brackets after the table.