Rwanda will start issuing driving licenses for automatic vehicles effective by January next year for public road testing, a senior official in the ministry of Infrastructure revealed Friday in Kigali.
According to Alfred Byringiro, the Transport Division Manager at the ministry of Infrastructure, the new decision follows follows a petition by a private citizen to parliament in April 2018, which sought to amend the law on acquisition of driving licenses to allow for the use of automatic cars.
“For now, we are about to submit a draft law in parliament concerning the amendment of the current law governing road traffic,” Byiringiro told local media in Kigali.
He said that after that draft law is passed, they will follow with the amending of the Presidential Order which is the one that so far stipulates how driving tests are done.
The test vehicles must be equipped with monitoring devices that can monitor driving behavior, collect vehicle location information and monitor whether a vehicle is in self-driving mode.
There are currently multiple sets of sensors in the vehicles so that, in case of sensor failure, collisions with pedestrians or other vehicles can be avoided, it said.
In Rwanda, a ministerial order released in April 2015 lays out the stringent measures to get a permit. First, you must be above 18 years. And there are various institutions you have to attend. Qualified drivers aged 45 years and below get their Licenses valid for ten years.
CU/abj/APA