On July 9 the European Parliament passed an extensive reform package for road traffic in the European Union, known as the mobility package. The new rules will regulate access to the market for trucks, conditions for sending out employees in road transport and improve the conditions of drivers. Its aim is also to push through – in a more efficient way – rules that make traffic safer.
The Czech satellite VZLUSAT-1 has been in orbit for three years already where it has been successfully checking the abilities of systems used in space. It has been therefore in service three time longer than what is the average service life of CubeSat-type satellites where VZLUSAT-1 belongs. By the end of 2020, its VZLUSAT-2 successor will be launched on the Falcon 9 shuttle of SpaceX from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Also in this case, the satellite will come from the plants of the Research and Testing Institute in Prague.
The traditional direct connection, called "Vindobona", between Vienna, Prague and Berlin is back following a break lasting several years. The new train even reaches Graz in Austria and offers a direct connection from Brno to Dresden and Berlin, or from Ústí nad Labem to Vienna and Graz without for changing.
On December 31, 2020 new rules for pilot-less planes, usually called "drones", will apply in the Czech Republic and the whole EU. As attention had to be paid to such challenges as the fight against the spread of the COVID 19 disease, the original date July 1, 2020 was postponed. Therefore, existing regulations remain in force until the end of 2020. The new rules will primarily apply to drones registration, the terms and conditions of their traffic and required technical parameters. The uniform rules will enable drones operation across all EU countries.
The Government of the Czech Republic allowed the cross-border bus and railway transport from 11 May.
The Ministry of Transport, which is actively developing the area of autonomous mobility, has decided to set up an Ethics Committee to assess issues related to the operation of automated and autonomous vehicles in the Czech Republic. Its goal is to comprehensively assess the issues of ethics and related topics in the field of automated and autonomous vehicles in the Czech Republic. David Černý is the chairman of the committee and the leading experts in the field of ethics, law, social sciences, artificial intelligence and technical fields are the other twelve members.