Regulating autonomous vehicles appears to be a priority for the South African government. Recently, the Department of Transport spoke to its strategic plan to protect South Africans through legislation, regulations, and policy. It reasons that autonomous vehicles will soon become a reality in the country, so there’s potential for harm. Hence, they propose regulating the technology.
This post introduces autonomous vehicles and highlights some of their benefits and challenges. It also considers the legal challenges they create. Plus, we look at why we need regulation and whether the government’s approach to regulation is well-considered.
What are autonomous vehicles?
In simple terms, they are motor vehicles that drive themselves with little to no human input. They are also known as driverless cars, self-driving cars, and robo-cars.
The technology allows a car’s computer to collect data from its sensors. Its sensors empower it to interact with other vehicles and its environment and control its functions, e.g. speeding up, braking, or reporting an accident. Companies like Ford, Google, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Uber plan to launch these vehicles soon. The idea is that autonomous cars will eventually replace traditional vehicles.
Benefits and challenges
Autonomous vehicles would probably enhance road traffic, safety, mobility, and convenience. Road traffic will reduce as autonomous vehicles will follow the road’s rule. Safety will improve as there will be minor human errors; human cause over 90% of car accidents. Mobility will increase as these vehicles can transport people who can’t ordinarily drive, e.g. people living with mobility issues, older people, and children. Then, there’s the fact that that humans can save the time they usually spend on driving.
But, autonomous vehicles also have their challenges. It is not clear what effect autonomous vehicles will have on the environment. Further, would the increased adoption of autonomous cars disable humans from preventing accidents because they don’t know how to drive? Regulators will also have to decide whether to outlaw human driving eventually. This decision has human-rights implications.
Legal challenges
The most prominent legal challenges deal with transport laws that cover road safety and the regulation of traffic.
- Will it be legal in the future to drink and drive since AI will be in control of the vehicle?
- There’s the challenge that humans usually are the decision-makers when it comes to these laws. They are the people that need to comply with the rules. When it comes to autonomous vehicles, AI is making the decision.
- And, who or what is liable when something goes wrong? The human, AI, the manufacturer? And, how will liability impact insurance?
- Then there’s the timeless question: “If an autonomous vehicle must decide whether to end a life, what decision should it make?” The regulator needs to clarify whether this decision needs to be made by AI or the human. The challenge here is that we’re regulating a future where humans may not be able to drive.
Why do we need regulation?
We need regulation for legal certainty and to protect people from harm.
We also need clarity on how the proposed laws will impact other areas of law, such as insurance and data protection.
Is the government’s approach correct?
It’s admirable that the government’s thinking proactively about the implications of emerging technologies for South Africa. However, its approach to regulation needs to be well-considered because of its far-reaching implications.
Before the SA government regulates autonomous vehicles, it needs to regulate AI generally. The reason is that AI applies to a range of industries and has implications for every organisation imaginable. There’s also the foresight that haphazard regulation will cause legal uncertainty and potentially frustrate innovation.
