Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on Tuesday presented a document on road safety and crash minimization policies.
As follows from the document, the authorities, in particular, plan to oblige car manufacturers to equip vehicles with so-called Event Data Recorders (EDR), which record several parameters of the car's operation at once, in particular the position of the gas and brake pedals, the state of the seat belts , emergency braking systems and so on.
EDR will become mandatory for all passenger vehicles with a maximum capacity of nine people, as well as for trucks up to 3.5 tons. Corresponding amendments to the law on road vehicles are expected to be made by September this year.
The new requirements should come into force in July 2022. In this case, Japan could become the first country in the world to make EDR equipment mandatory.
On a voluntary basis, many companies are already equipping their cars with such devices. As noted by experts from the International Organization of Automobile Manufacturers, China was supposed to make the presence of EDR mandatory for all passenger cars from January 1, 2021, but there is no information on whether such a decision was made finally.
