Regulation of self-driving cars
Regulation of self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles and automated driving system is an increasingly relevant topic in the automotive industry strongly related to the success of the actual technology.
There may be a need for existing liability laws to evolve to fairly identify the parties responsible for damage and injury, and to address the potential for conflicts of interest between human occupants, system operators, insurers, and the public purse.
Regulations aim compatibility of these automated vehicles with safety, legal responsibility and privacy public's expectations[5] First national regulations address various topics: Several questions were raised by automated vehicles including responsibility, safety standards, software reliability, environmental performance and cybersecurity.
[9] In Australia, the goal is to codify the framework into statute by 2026 via the Automated Vehicle Safety Law (AVSL) focused in three topics: first-supply, in-service, and state/territory road transport.
The Law Commissions considers that an ADS feature is self-driving only if a human is not required to perform any monitoring task until a transition demand.
[34][35][36] During the summer of 2021, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) prepared with MLIT to launch a project "RoAD to the L4" to cover R&D with social deployment to realize acceptable Level 4 mobility service, and updated its public information in September.
[39][40][41] At the end of 2021, NPA proposed an amendment bill on "Road Traffic Act" to include approving scheme for Level 4 services.
[51] In 2017, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives unanimously passed "SELF DRIVE Act" which would speed the adoption of self-driving cars and bar states from setting performance standards.
However, a complementary bill in the Senate, "AV START", failed to pass after Democrats raised objections that it didn't do enough to address safety and liability concerns.
On 10 March 2022, NHTSA updated and finalized the rule on safety requirements for the Occupant Protection to allow a vehicle without driving controls to comply with US regulations.
[66][67] The major update to NHTSA regulations allows companies to build and deploy autonomous vehicles without manual controls, as long as they meet other state and federal standards.
Google had further lobbied for an exemption from a ban on distracted driving to permit occupants to send text messages while sitting behind the wheel, but this did not become law.
[78] California became the third state to allow automated car testing when Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 1298 into law in September 2012 at Google Headquarters in Mountain View.
[84] Under the governorship of Charlie Baker in 2016, Executive Order 572[1] was implemented to promote the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads in Massachusetts.
[85] In July 2014, the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics ordinance that includes provisions to allow for self-driving cars.
[89] In 2021, the UK worked on a bill to allow self-driving automated lane keeping systems (ALKS) up to 37 mph (or 60 km/h[90]) after a mixed reaction of experts during the consultation launched in summer 2020.
[91] This system would be allowed to give back control to the driver when "unplanned events" such as road construction or inclement weather occurs.
[93][94] About misleading representation in marketing, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) published guiding principles as followings: In April 2022, UK government confirmed planned changes to "The Highway Code", responding to a public consultation.
At the 2015 ITS World Congress, a conference dedicated to intelligent transport systems, the very first demonstration of automated vehicles on open road in France was carried out in Bordeaux in early October 2015.
[109][110] In December 2020, the government updated the strategy to make France the preferred location in Europe for the deployment of automated road mobility services.
[109] The legislative and regulatory framework for the deployment of automated vehicles and transport systems was established through an ordinance in April 2021 and a following decree in June 2021.
[111] The legislative and regulatory framework for the operation of automated vehicles resulting from article 31 of "the Mobility Orientation Law" is scheduled to be finalized in Q1 of 2022.
[123] In March 2020, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published draft GB/T on 6-levels classification framework for driving automation which is basically corresponding to SEA levels.
And in April 2020, MIIT released about the goal of the year which is set to complete the formulation of framework for driving-assist functions and low-level autonomous driving (Level 3).
[125] In March 2021, Ministry of Public Security (MPS) published draft proposed amendments on the "Road Traffic Safety Law".
[126] In August 2021, The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and MIIT issued "the Provisions on Management of Automotive Data Security (Trial)".
[129] In February 2022, NTC published a policy paper to present proposals on the end-to-end regulatory framework for the commercial deployment of automated vehicles.
However, most regulations and relevant international frameworks strongly imply the presence of a driver in the vehicle given that ‘automation’ was not a consideration at the time of drafting the legislation.
[134] In March 2022, the Knesset passed legislation that will allow companies to pilot autonomous shared transportation with passengers in the vehicle but without a safety driver on Israeli roads.
The legislation allows companies and vehicle operators to obtain special licenses from MOT and to conduct trials with autonomous cars including for the purpose of transporting paying passengers and where an independent driving system replaces the driver.
