About this initiative

Event data recorders (EDRs) help obtain more accurate and complete data for accident research and analysis. They are already mandatory for new types of passenger cars and vans. The General Safety Regulation requires the Commission to also adopt EDR technical requirements and test procedures for new types of heavy-duty vehicles. These must become applicable as from January 2026.

This initiative sets out the requirements for the type approval of M2, M3, N2 and N3 vehicles with regard to their EDR.

UN Regulation No 169 – Uniform Provisions Concerning the Approval of Event Data Recorders (EDR) for Heavy-Duty Vehicles [2024/1218]

Date of entry into force: 19 June 2024

This document is meant purely as documentation tool. The authentic and legally binding text is: ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2023/134/Rev.1.

0.   Introduction

               0.1.      The intention of this Regulation is to establish uniform provisions concerning the approval of motor vehicles of the categories M2, M3, N2 and N3 with regard to their Event Data Recorders (EDRs).

The provisions concern the minimum collection, storage, and crash survivability of the motor vehicle crash event data. It does not include specifications for data retrieval tools and methods which are subject to national or regional level requirements.

               0.2.      The purpose of these provisions is to ensure that EDRs record, in a readily usable manner, data valuable for effective crash investigations and for analysis of safety equipment performance while limiting, to the greatest extent possible, the recording of data unrelated to the crash. Such crash data will help provide a better understanding of the circumstances in which crashes and injuries occur and will facilitate the development of safer vehicle designs. In this context, crashes should be understood as involving property damage and/or personal harm, including that of vulnerable road users involved.

               0.3.      It is understood that, in the current state of technology, the aforementioned objective can be reached only by recording the data in a specified time period based on defined triggers and trigger thresholds. These triggers may, but do not always immediately precede or follow or coincide with the crash.

               0.4.      Contracting parties may but are not required to make EDR requirements mandatory for M2, M3, N2 and N3 vehicles.

1.   Scope

               1.1.      This Regulation applies to the approval of vehicles of categories M2, M3, N2 and N3 (1) with regard to their Event Data Recorders (EDRs).

               1.2.      This Regulation is without prejudice to requirements of national or regional laws related to privacy, data protection and personal data processing.

               1.3.      The following data elements are excluded from the scope: Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), associated vehicle details, location/positioning data, information on the driver, and date and time of an event.

               1.4.      If there is no system or sensor designed to provide the trigger indicated in the 5.3.1.3 table of safety systems or the data element to be recorded and stored under section 5, in the format (range, resolution, and sample rate) indicated in Annex 4 ‘Data Elements and Format’ or it is not operational at the time of reaching a specific trigger condition as indicated in 5.3.1 or at the time of recording, this document requires neither recording of such data nor fitting or making such systems or sensors operational. However, if the vehicle is fitted with an original equipment manufacturer sensor or system designed to provide the trigger indicated in 5.3.1.3 or the data element in the format specified in Annex 4 ‘Data Elements and Format’, then it is mandatory to report the data element in the specified format when the sensor or system is operational. In the case the reason for not being operational at the time of recording is a failure of this system or sensor, this failure state shall be recorded by the EDR as defined in Annex 4 ‘Data elements and format’.

On October 2, 2024, new EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2220, specifying the technical requirements and test procedures for Event Data Recorders (EDRs) fitted to heavy duty motor vehicles, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The mandatory fitment of Event Data Recorders (EDRs) to heavy duty motor vehicles is one of the new safety features required by (EU) 2019/2144 (more commonly referred to as General Safety Regulation 2 or GSR 2). As specified in (EU) 2019/2144, from January 7, 2026, the fitment of an EDR becomes mandatory for all new types of M2, M3, N2 and N3 category vehicle (i.e. buses, coaches, heavy trucks and tractor units) and, from January 7, 2029, the fitment of an EDR will become mandatory for all new vehicles falling into those categories.

Essentially, this new EU Regulation requires EDRs for heavy duty vehicles to comply with the technical requirements specified in United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) Regulation No. 169 on Event Data Recorders for heavy duty vehicles. However, (EU) 2024/2220 specifies additional requirements on data retrieval, privacy and security of data that EDR’s must comply with.

This new EU Regulation, and an updated and consolidated version of (EU) 2019/2144 incorporating the changes introduced by (EU) 2024/2220, is available on InterRegs.NET for our EC subscribers and is also available at