Maggie Wu (吳詩敏)[1] Lin Tzu-Ching (林子靖)[2]
The Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC has issued two sets of administrative guidance for unmanned vehicles, governing the test phase and the operational phase respectively. This part explains their content and their legal character, sets out the test waters that can currently be applied for together with the applicable rules, and covers the use of water space, the supply chain and data security requirements and incident handling, for the reference of the unmanned vehicle industry.
The Bureau’s administrative guidance and the test waters available
Besides permission under the Commercial Port Act, an operator testing in designated waters must also proceed in accordance with the two sets of administrative guidance the Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC has issued for unmanned vehicles: the Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles in Designated Test Waters, which governs the test phase, and the General Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles, which governs the operational phase. It should be noted that the Bureau operates no review procedure for applications relating to designated test waters; the guidance simply states the documents that must be in order. The operator must still apply to the authority managing the particular body of water under that authority’s own rules, and both sets of requirements must be satisfied together. The waters that may be applied for and the applicable rules are set out in Table 1.[3]
Table 1 Test waters available for unmanned vehicles and the applicable rules
Source: compiled from Annex 1 to the Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles in Designated Test Waters and from the Maritime and Port Bureau’s compilation Application Rules for the Designated Waters (June 2026).
| Test waters | Managing authority | Applicable rules |
| Keelung, Taipei, Su-ao, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Anping, Hualien, Budai and Penghu ports | Taiwan International Ports Corporation | Guidelines for Promoting the Taiwan Port Group Smart Port Innovative Technology Industry Testing Grounds (issued by Letter Gang-Zong-Qi-Zi No. 1100142079 of 31 March 2021 and amended by Letter Gang-Zong-Qi-Zi No. 1140620443 of 1 September 2025) |
| Kaohsiung Port Love River Bay and Su-ao Port No. 1 Basin (dedicated testing grounds) | Taiwan International Ports Corporation, Kaohsiung Branch; Su-ao Port Operations Office, Keelung Branch | Application Notes for the Taiwan Port Group Dedicated Testing Grounds for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles |
| Shihmen Reservoir (surface only) | Shihmen Reservoir Management Center, Northern Region Water Resources Branch, Water Resources Agency, MOEA | Guidelines for the Management of Use of the Water Surface of Shihmen Reservoir |
| Mingde Reservoir and Dapu Reservoir (surface only) | Miaoli Management Office, Agricultural Irrigation Agency, Ministry of Agriculture | Miaoli Management Office application for use of the water surface of reservoirs; matters concerning the impoundment areas of Mingde and Dapu Reservoirs and applications for permission |
| Zengwen Reservoir | Zengwen Reservoir Management Center, Southern Region Water Resources Branch, Water Resources Agency, MOEA | Regulations Governing the Use of Reservoir Impoundment Areas; notes on activities in the Zengwen Reservoir impoundment area and public notice on applications for permission |
| Chengcing Lake (surface only) | Seventh Branch, Taiwan Water Corporation | Matters concerning the impoundment area of Chengcing Lake Reservoir and applications for permission |
It should also be noted that Chapter 5 of the General Safety Management Guidelines contains separate rules on the use of water space: for use in the nation’s rivers and lakes, other inland waterways or port areas, the consent of the authority managing those waters must be obtained; for use in the nation’s coastal waters, between its outlying islands or on the open sea, the operator must proceed in accordance with the rules of the Ministry of the Interior and other competent authorities on the use of maritime activity space and must also, depending on the area used and the nature of the activity, obtain in advance the consent of the water management authority, the competent industry authority or the authority with jurisdiction; and where the operating waters are in the Kinmen or Matsu area, the vehicle must not go beyond the waters prohibited in that area.
The guidance and the Taiwan International Ports Corporation’s Guidelines for Promoting the Taiwan Port Group Smart Port Innovative Technology Industry Testing Grounds all require that the applicant not be a PRC enterprise, an enterprise of a third region with PRC capital, a PRC-invested enterprise in Taiwan or an enterprise with PRC capital announced by the Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The General Safety Management Guidelines further provide, across three tiers — the complete vehicle (final assembly, hull and structural parts), the subsystems (propulsion, payload, communications and remote guidance and control) and the components (thrusters, motors, electronic speed controllers, battery management modules, cameras, radar, sensing and monitoring devices, communication chips, antennas, GPS chips, navigation and positioning systems, remote control systems, autonomous operation systems and remote operation systems) — that none may be supplied by a PRC enterprise. Vehicle position information and other operational data collected, generated, processed or stored during operation may also not be transmitted, stored or backed up, directly or indirectly, in the PRC (including Hong Kong and Macau), nor provided to the government, political parties, natural persons, juridical persons, organisations or other institutions of the PRC.
As to incident handling, the guidance requires the owner or user of the unmanned vehicle to take out appropriate liability insurance, and imposes requirements as to the insurer’s standing and the approval or recordal of the policy. Where a collision, grounding, death or injury, equipment damage or water pollution occurs, the remote operator must stop operations at once, take the necessary measures under the emergency response and rescue plan, and report immediately. Where a vehicle sinks or grounds so as to affect navigational safety or the aquatic environment, the owner or user must promptly salvage, recover or remove it; if it fails to do so within a reasonable period, the water management authority may act in its place and charge the cost, and a later application for registration may be refused on that ground. Where a major transport accident causes death or injury to a certain number of persons on another vessel, or property damage, the operator must report to the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board under the Transportation Occurrence Investigation Act and the Regulations Governing the Investigation of Major Marine Occurrences, and must co-operate with the maritime authority’s administrative investigation under the Regulations for Marine Casualty Review. The General Safety Management Guidelines further provide that the mission commander “shall be liable for negligence in the performance of duties; if he asserts the absence of negligence, he bears the burden of proof”. All of this is a matter of administrative management, and remains distinct from the determination of civil liability in damages.
According to the Bureau’s consultation meeting of 5 August 2026, however, there has as yet been no actual test case in any of the designated test waters, and the Bureau has listed disclosure of information on test waters, matching operators’ needs with site conditions, the convenience of the application procedure, the review burden on managing authorities, inter-agency assistance mechanisms and the expansion of test locations as matters for review. The framework is in place, but how it works in practice remains to be seen.[4]
Conclusion
The Maritime and Port Bureau has issued separate administrative guidance for the test phase and for the operational phase, establishing a management framework covering vehicle survey, information security, personnel qualifications, operational reporting and incident handling. Both sets of guidance are, however, administrative guidance: they have no statutory authorisation and no penalty provisions, and what an operator obtains is administrative consent to test in designated waters rather than the status of a ship in law. Chapter 6 of the General Safety Management Guidelines further provides that the documents issued under them must, once a dedicated statute or related legislation takes effect, be dealt with under a conversion mechanism to be announced by the maritime authority; and there has so far been no actual test case.
(The next part of this series sets out five steps operators can take under the law as it stands, and the situations in which the relevant rules should be reviewed before committing resources.)
[1] Maggie Wu (吳詩敏) is the Managing Partner of Stellex Law Firm (有澤法律事務所). LL.M., Soochow University; LL.M., Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
[2] Lin Tzu-Ching (林子靖) is the Managing Partner of Pan & Lin, Attorneys-at-Law (則誠法律事務所). LL.M., Graduate Institute of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies, National Chengchi University; LL.M. in Environmental and Energy Law, Georgetown University Law Center.
[3] Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles in Designated Test Waters, issued by the Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC, by Letter Hang-Bo-Zi No. 1141711673 of 30 December 2025 and amended by Letter Hang-Bo-Zi No. 1151710667 of 14 July 2026; General Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles, issued by the same Bureau by Letter Hang-Bo-Zi No. 1151710748 of 24 July 2026. Both are published in the “Unmanned Vehicles Section” of the Bureau’s website (accessed 2 November 2026). Both are administrative guidance, not regulations, and carry no penalty provisions; Chapter 6 of the General Guidelines further provides that the approval documents, use certificates and remote operator certificates issued under them are, “after a dedicated statute or related legislation takes effect”, to be replaced, extended or continued in use under a conversion mechanism to be announced by the maritime authority.
[4] For the test waters that may be applied for, their managing authorities and the applicable rules, see Annex 1 to the Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles in Designated Test Waters; the individual application rules for each body of water are collected in the Maritime and Port Bureau’s compilation Application Rules for the Designated Waters (June 2026). On how the system is working in practice, see the Bureau’s presentation to the Consultation Meeting on Matching and Streamlining Test Applications for Designated Test Waters for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles, 5 August 2026.