Legal Issues of Driver Assistance Systems and Autonomous Driving

Abstract

While legal issues of driver assistance systems appear to be largely solved for systems supporting the driver with information or such that remain easily overrideable/oversteerable, the increase in automation can eventually bring about a paradigmatic change of the “driving task”: Up to date, the driver’s responsibility for the use of systems is maintained, thus remaining within the traditional concept of driving. In future, however, a substantial further increase in automation can lead to a structural shift. The legal issues this change would raise must be identified and handled at an early stage of research to avoid false investment as well as inequitable legal consequences. The legal issues related to driver assistance and autonomous systems are thereby cross-sectional in nature and have a link to the issue of acceptance as far as a basic legal change is intended and necessary.

Cooperative systems, presently under intensive research with their plentiful possibilities and benefits, also give rise to legal uncertainties in several fields (including liability). However, here communication architecture, technical design, as well as potential operators vary tremendously depending on use case and information required for the respective function. This retards a universally valid description of accompanying legal issues. As long as these systems are, however, only meant to take effect by informing the driver on the oncoming traffic situation and dangers without suggesting full reliability (as is presently mostly under research), data privacy should prove to be the only important (but resolvable) issue.