Bryant Walker Smith

A Legal Perspective on Three Misconceptions in Vehicle Automation

In this chapter I address three commonly misunderstood aspects of vehicle automation: capability, deployment, and connectivity. For each, I identify a myth pervading public discussion, provide a contradictory view common among experts, explain why that expert view is itself incomplete, and finally discuss the legal implications of this nuance. Although there are many more aspects that merit clarification, these three are linked because they suggest a shift in transportation from a product model to a service model, a point with which I conclude.

Regulation and the Risk of Inaction

This chapter begins with two fundamental questions: How should risk be allocated in the face of significant uncertainty—and who should decide? Its focus on public actors reflects the significant role that legislatures, administrative agencies, and courts will play in answering these questions, whether through rules, investigations, verdicts, or other forms of public regulation. The eight strategies discussed in this chapter would in effect regulate that regulation. They seek to ensure that those who are injured can be compensated (by expanding public insurance and facilitating private insurance), that any prospective rules develop in tandem with the technologies to which they would apply (by privileging the concrete and delegating the safety case), that reasonable design choices receive sufficient legal support (by limiting the duration of risk and excluding the extreme), and that conventional driving is subject to as much scrutiny as automated driving (by rejecting the status quo and embracing enterprise liability).

Introduction: The Transportation Research Board’s 2013 Workshop on Road Vehicle Automation

This chapter introduces the TRB 2013 Workshop on Road Vehicle Automation, which was the original source for the papers that are included in this volume. The TRB organization and its functions are explained, providing the context for this workshop and its significance. The reasons for creating the workshop are explained, in the context of the history of road vehicle automation work in the U.S. The structure and organization of the meeting are explained, showing its mixture of plenary talks, breakout discussions, technical demonstrations and ancillary meetings. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions and thoughts about the future meetings in this series.

Model Legislation for Automated Driving

This book chapter proposes model bills to clarify the legal status of automated driving at both the state and federal levels in the United States. The chapter briefly describes this current status, critiques my earlier legislative language, identifies other relevant efforts, presents the model state bill, and then presents the model federal bill. These models principally address the legal status of automated driving rather than the range of other relevant issues. Since they are likely to evolve, current versions are available at newlypossible.org/modellaws.

Automated Driving Policy

This chapter summarizes a longer policy paper, How Governments Can Promote Automated Driving, which details steps that state and local governments can take now to encourage the development, deployment, and use of automated road vehicles. The chapter has four main parts. Context emphasizes the need to think broadly about relevant technologies, impacts, and laws. Administrative Strategies identifies steps that governments can take in the course of their ordinary operations. Legal Strategies recommends a careful legal audit and provides guidance on the legal changes or clarifications that may flow from such an audit. Community Strategies focuses on ways that communities can prepare for and even attract truly driverless systems that are responsive to local needs and opportunities.

Rahmenbedingungen für die Fahrerassistenzentwicklung

Der Begriff der Fahrerassistenzsysteme im Sinn der Kapitelbezeichnung wie auch des vorliegenden Handbuches insgesamt soll hier die Fahrzeugautomatisierung mit erfassen. Fur ein einheitliches Verstandnis wird im vorliegenden Kapitel zunachst eine Kategorisierung von Systemen unter dem Gesichtspunkt ihrer Wirkung auf die Fahrzeugfuhrung vorgeschlagen. Die von der BASt-Projektgruppe „Rechtsfolgen zunehmender Fahrzeugautomatisierung“ [1] entwickelte Nomenklatur von Automatisierungsgraden wird darunter eingeordnet und dargestellt. Auf dieser Basis werden im Anschluss wichtige rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen, vor allem das Verhaltensrecht und das Haftungsrecht nach deutschem Recht dargestellt und die Bedeutung fur die unterschiedlichen Kategorien erlautert. In einem weiteren Abschnitt wird ein Uberblick uber den aktuellen Stand der Gesetzgebung in bestimmten Bundesstaaten der USA (Stand: Anfang 2014) gegeben, der zumeist den Einsatz von automatisierten Fahrzeugen mindestens zu Forschungs-, Entwicklungs- und Erprobungszwecken erlaubt. Das vorliegende Kapitel wendet sich sodann den ubergreifenden Rahmenbedingungen des Verbraucherschutzes in Europa zu. Das im Rahmen von Euro NCAP geschaffene Bewertungssystem berucksichtigt zunehmend auch Fahrerassistenzsysteme bei der Bewertung von Fahrzeugsicherheit und entwickelt die Anforderungen bestandig weiter.