President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has approved amendments to the Merchant Shipping Code, the laws "On Road Traffic," "On Transport," "On State Duty," "On the List of Items That May Belong to Certain Participants in Civil Transactions and Are Allowed for Circulation on the Basis of a Special Permit (Items with Restricted Civil Circulation)," "On Road Transport," and "On Aviation."
As reported by FinFly.News, the amendments approve the introduction of autonomous vehicles across all modes of transport in Azerbaijan, including road, rail, metro, tram, maritime, and air transport.
It is proposed that autonomous vehicles may only be operated after state registration in an area designated by authorized state bodies.
A legal or natural person may operate as an operator after obtaining the relevant certificate. The operator is required to monitor the functioning of the automated control system during operation, promptly intervene in situations that pose a threat to operation, ensure the storage and protection of data related to the operation of the vehicle, and immediately notify the relevant state bodies in the event of an incident, accident, or emergency.
Certificates for the operation of physical and legal entities as operators are issued for a period of 5 years. A state duty of 20 manats is established for the issuance of the certificate for operator activities. Remote control centers must be created, and data generated during operation must be transmitted to the state information system in real time. Data transmitted to the state system must be recorded and stored by operators for 6 months.