Driverless cars are in conflict with current laws, and the era of "unmanned driving" is coming

Automated driving technology may bring subversive changes to human traffic behavior, which raises many questions for relevant legislation. The legislative areas that may be involved include: vehicle licensing system (including testing system, mass production system, approval system, accident identification system, etc.), vehicle technical standards, driver qualification system, road traffic regulations, traffic accident liability system, product liability system, Even the data privacy protection system of the driver or passenger.

In the automatic driving mode, since the driving behavior of the vehicle is controlled by the vehicle's automatic driving system rather than by humans, the traditional fault liability mode loses the applicable premise, and the problem of product liability for the application of no-fault liability is involved. At this time, the legal modification link must focus on the following issues: the insurance system, the application of no-fault liability, the method of accountability, the determination of responsibility in the case of takeover, and so on.

At the end of 2017, a news of “Shenzhen unmanned buses on the road” made the topic of “bus farewell to drivers” and “the era of unmanned driving” smashed the circle of friends. Although the facts have been disclosed by the Shenzhen Bus Group, “there are people driving, testing routes, and only open to specific groups of people”, but from the hot topic of the topic, we can see that “unmanned driving” has expanded from the technical hotspots seized by technology companies. Public topics focused by the whole people.

Soon after, the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission officially issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Work of Accelerating the Road Testing of Self-driving Vehicles in Beijing (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), which is the first domestic regulations on automatic driving tests. In combination with the smart car demonstration zone established in 2016 and the upcoming autopilot test site, is the “unmanned” landing just around the corner?

Did the "unmanned" era really come?

In fact, while major companies continue to declare technological breakthroughs in driverless or autonomous driving, they cannot change the fact that driving behavior is a complex act involving public safety, social rules, and even social ethics. From technological breakthroughs to truly large-scale operations, there are still many problems to be solved in the middle. As a basic law for the basic protection of public transportation safety, how to play a normative guiding role in the tide of new technology and balance the relationship between new technology and public safety is an important test for the wisdom of legislators, and to a certain extent, it also affects new technologies and related enterprises. An important factor in fate.

Automated driving technology may bring subversive changes to human traffic behavior, which raises many questions for relevant legislation. Possible legislative areas include vehicle licensing systems (including testing systems, mass production systems, approval systems, accident identification systems, etc.), vehicle technical standards, driver qualification systems, road traffic regulations, traffic accident liability systems, product liability systems, and even Data privacy protection system for drivers or passengers, etc.

Autopilot is not really "unmanned"

Misleading by the news headlines of Shenzhen “Driving Bus”, many people think that “unmanned driving” is the automatic driving of the driver’s seat that is vacant. In fact, from the relevant legislation of major countries, the so-called “unmanned driving” is more accurately described as “automatic driving”. At present, there is no country that really allows the driver to drive without autonomous driving. This is also related to the current technological development. Adapted. Correspondingly, the division of responsibility related to the automatic driving mode and the takeover of the driver's personal driving will also be the key issue of future legislative and judicial practice.

In the "Opinions" issued by Beijing, the official definition of autonomous driving is given: the automatic driving function refers to the automatic driving of the vehicle, and it is possible to guide the driving task of the vehicle without testing the driver to perform the physical driving operation. Decision-making, and instead of testing the driver's handling behavior, the vehicle completes the function of safe driving.

The automatic driving functions include automatic driving function, automatic shifting function, automatic braking function, automatic monitoring of surrounding environment function, automatic lane changing function, automatic steering function, automatic signal reminding function, and network-connected automatic driving assistance function. The "Opinions" specifically pointed out that motor vehicles only contain the following motor vehicle auxiliary automation systems that are not part of the automatic driving system:

Active safety assistance system, electronic blind spot assist system, collision avoidance system, emergency braking system, parking assist system, adaptive cruise system, vehicle maintenance assist system, vehicle deviation warning system, traffic congestion queuing assistance system, etc.

It can be seen that the ability of “guidance and decision-making” in a complex traffic environment is the key to the realization of autonomous driving artificial intelligence.

Difficulties: responsibility for traffic accidents

Judging from the "Opinions" issued by Beijing, it stipulates the test subjects, test drivers, and test vehicle qualifications, indicating that China's legislation on automatic driving still stays at the stage of testing and access system. The real impact on the public interest is probably the traffic safety problem of self-driving vehicles on open public roads, especially the division of responsibilities.

At the Baidu AI Developers Conference in July last year, the news that "Li Yanhong took the five rings on the driverless car" was supposed to be the best publicity of the new technology, but the most eye-catching title was "the traffic police involved in the investigation."

The existing traffic accident liability is based on the Tort Liability Law and the Road Traffic Safety Law, and the fault liability system is implemented. This is based on the basic ethics and legal basis of the driver. Once you have entered the responsibility assessment for accidents related to autonomous driving, involving the vehicle owner, vehicle producers, vehicle sellers, vehicle drivers, insurance companies and other multi-party subjects, the traditional fault determination principle will not be directly applicable, and there may be multiple The choice of law or the simultaneous application of different imputation principles.

Autopilot mode urges legal modification

The existing liability system for traffic accidents is based on the fault liability, and is compensated in the order of the insurer-commercial-insurance-infringer, in which the full-risk insurance is fully compensated, the commercial three-insurance and the infringer are compensated according to the proportion of fault. . When the owner and the driver are inconsistent, the owner may also be considered to be liable for the fault of the driver's fault.

In the automatic driving mode, since the vehicle driving activity is controlled by the vehicle's automatic driving system rather than by humans, this makes the fault liability lose the applicable premise, and involves the product liability problem of applying no-fault liability. At this point, the following issues must be considered in the legal modification process:

1. Insurance system.

The existing insurance premiums and rates are the result of comprehensive consideration of the basic protection of victims, the level of economic development and the ability of consumers to pay, the incidence of traffic accidents and the corresponding cost-benefit of insurance companies. After the application of autonomous driving technology, the traffic accident rate The changes, technical maturity and social affordability will inevitably affect the above-mentioned insured amount and rate factors, and the amount and rate of mandatory liability insurance should be changed.

2. The application of no fault liability.

The traffic accident caused by the automatic driving mode may be subject to the Product Quality Law, and the vehicle or the autopilot system producer or seller shall bear no fault liability. In addition, the "Product Quality Law" has a "disclaimer of the existence of defects in the scientific and technical level when the product is put into circulation". However, this is the logic of the era of non-artificial intelligence, and the "black box" algorithm in artificial intelligence, that is, the deep learning process of artificial intelligence is similar to the complex thinking process of the human brain, it is difficult to accurately determine the final result, whether the above product quality can be applied. The exemption clause for defects found in the Law is an important legislative and judicial issue.

3. The method of accountability.

The traffic accident caused by autopilot may be subject to product liability. Then, the method of chasing the responsibility is to claim compensation from the infringer directly to the vehicle producer or seller, or to the vehicle producer or the driver or the owner to take responsibility first. The seller's recovery, or the choice of accountability, will further affect the litigation costs of the parties.

4. There is a responsibility judgment in the case of takeover.

As mentioned above, autonomous driving is not really "unmanned", there should be a driver on the driver's seat, and the vehicle is equipped with driver intervention or takeover procedures under certain circumstances. Then, in the case of personnel intervention or the presence of takeover, the complexity of the responsibility determination will be doubled.

Of course, the author puts forward these problems, not to regard new things as "flooding beasts". Artificial intelligence has become an irreversible trend in a wider and deeper impact on the lives of ordinary people.

In fact, from the perspective of national legislation, the United States has streamlined the autopilot company's evaluation process to encourage corporate R&D; Germany has imposed "black box" on the car to solve the problem of accident liability determination; France, South Korea, Finland and other countries have begun to open up. Tests, etc., represent an increasingly encouraging and open attitude towards autopilot technology.

In the Internet age, the technological revolution is bringing us the revelation: human technological wisdom and ethical wisdom have always spawned new thinking in the era of great change, and this is the inexhaustible driving force for us to move towards a better future. .

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