The Ministry of Industry and Trade has prepared a draft government decree proposing to extend the granting of subsidies for testing unmanned vehicles on public roads until 2022.

“The target indicator for the recipient of the subsidy is set in the amount of at least 200 conclusions in 2021 and at least 100 conclusions in 2022,” the draft from Ministry of Industry and Trade says. As noted in the memorandum to the document, the cost of testing could prevent drone developers from massive participation in trial testing.

Testing of self-driving cars on public roads began in December 2018 and will last until March 1, 2022. To participate in it, a car must be tested for compliance with the mandatory requirements of the technical regulations of both the Eurasian Customs Union and UN rules. These costs are reimbursed from the budget for 2020 and 2021.

In March this year, the Russian government approved a set of measures for testing and phased commissioning of highly automated vehicles on public roads. The document assumes that unmanned vehicles without a test engineer in the cabin will be allowed on Russian roads by the end of 2021. The government is also preparing a plan to provide infrastructure for highly automated road traffic to the network of major Russian roads by 2030.

Original (in Russian)