Problem Issues of Legal Regulation of the Operation of Cars with an Automated Driving System

Abstract

In the context of a fundamental change in the fundamental approaches to building a traffic management system, traditionally based on establishing the driver’s duty to ensure constant control over the traffic situation and, accordingly, presuming his responsibility for harm caused by a source of increased danger, the problem of legal regulation of the use of highly automated vehicles equipped with an automated driving system that does not provide for participation of the driver in the dynamic control of the car becomes not only relevant in theoretical, but also especially significant from practical aspects. The objective of the comprehensive study being conducted by the authors was to identify and visualise key groups of problems of legal regulation of the operation of cars with an automated driving system, to formulate proposals for their solution as part of a subsequent systemic legal study. This article is devoted to the results of consideration of the first block of the identified issues. Using the methods of the system-legal approach, formal-logical and formal-dogmatic analysis, the authors have identified the most problematic issues of legalising the terminology used in positive law and scientific sources. In particular, options for identifying the essential features of highly automated cars are proposed with the purpose to further legislatively determine the cars that should be classified as highly automated, to reveal which software and hardware complex can be considered an automated driving system, etc. Based on the results of solving the scientific problem, which consists in determining the directions for adapting the legislation governing the requirements for safety of vehicles and the procedure for their admission to operation for the needs of the widespread introduction of highly automated vehicles, the research can be carried out in two directions at the same time: to develop upper-level, essential requirements to safety and to develop specific, purely technical requirements for automated driving systems, as well as to develop a methodology for testing them. As a part of the taxonomic analysis carried out by the authors to determine, on a fundamentally new basis, the range of rights and obligations of the participants in the relations under the study, it is proposed to highlight the problem of distinguishing between situations in which the driver needs to take an active part in driving a car from situations in which he is not required to be actively involved. into this process. When considering issues of liability for harm caused by a car with an automated driving system, the article focuses on the need to solve the problem of balancing the responsibility of the car owner and the manufacturer, which can be facilitated by the application of methods of comparative legal analysis.