Announced Driverless Vehicles Not to Be Able to Function on Serbian Roads Without 5G Network

The long list of promises made by the representatives of the authorities includes driverless vehicles. Like a scene out of a movie, in 2027, the citizens of Serbia will no longer have to control their cars and artificial intelligence will instead “drive” for them. And while the prime minister is talking about how the first permits have already been issued, N1 has done some research: which law enables autonomous driving and whether Serbia has the infrastructure for it at all.

Science fiction made reality, the future is one step away – at least according to the promises of the prime minister.

– …autonomous driving! What is in fact called vehicles without drivers. About a month ago, we issued the first permit for a level 3 driverless vehicle. We are one of the first five countries in Europe to do so – Ana Brnabic boasted this Tuesday.

The permit is issued, but it is not known to whom or why since there are no autonomous vehicles in Serbia yet. There’s no explanation from the government about what kind of a legislative framework currently enables the functioning of cars without drivers either.

N1 has sought an explanation from experts. At the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, they say that, in Serbia, it is only the permit for testing level 3 vehicles mentioned by the prime minister that has been issued. Their free movement on the streets of Serbian cities is not allowed.

– Simply put, level 3 is the level at which the vehicle performs all the tasks within a limited range, but does all the tasks instead of the driver, except that the driver is in the place where they’re supposed to be and they are ready to take over the control of the vehicle in case there’s a need for it. At the moment, Draft Amendments to the Law of Road Traffic Safety are in the parliamentary procedure and those amendments define the testing of autonomous vehicles – explains Dragan Stamenkovic, a mechanical engineer from the CIAH Laboratory.

However, ideas about driverless vehicles are not big news, because Serbia joined the so-called “European 5G corridor” for the testing of such vehicles several years ago.

Irini Reljin, a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, was a direct “witness” to the negotiations about the implementation of the latest technology. She says for N1 that, without the 5G network, that kind of an endeavor is difficult to make, because the current 4G systems cannot respond to risky traffic situations.

– The 5G network has to follow the roads, highways, of course, it has to be developed in the city too, and we don’t have 5G systems yet. The 4G network produces delays which are not at the level of human perception. In order for an autonomous vehicle to even be able to function and make decisions the same way a man does, it has to react at the level of human perception. You mustn’t allow a vehicle to be used if this is not regulated – Reljin points out.

Mašinski fakultet Beograd

ETF Beograd

Irina Reljin

Dragan Stamenković

Ana Brnabić

5G network

4G mobile network

autonomous vehicles

driverless vehicles