On a weekend in 2025, you drive to a seaside vacation with friends. When passing the intersection, someone is crossing the road in front of you, and you are ready to slow down and find that the brakes are out of order. On your left is the cliff on the sea and on the right is the mountain. At this point, will you choose to move forward, left or right? If you are riding a self-driving car, how do you think it will choose...
This is a variant of the "train/tram puzzle". In times of crisis, the choices made by human beings are more easily understood, and the machines lack emotions and cannot effectively distinguish and understand human emotions. Therefore, in the eyes of most people, the machine is not equal to life, and it has no right to decide whether to live or die.
At present, the self-driving car technology has not been completely overcome, the relevant regulations are not perfect, and the division of traffic accident responsibility is not completely clear. These problems are a mountain that traverses the road to autonomous driving, and it takes several generations to authenticate and solve.
Currently, the industry generally agrees with the L0-L5 level of autonomous driving technology division of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Among them, the L3 level can realize the conditional automatic driving function, but the driver still can't relax the vigilance, and is ready to take over the moving car at any time.
With L3 as the boundary, the company's autonomous vehicle technology path is roughly divided into jump and progressive. Traditional car companies have experience in car making and tend to follow the L3-L5 step by step. The cross-border car manufacturer headed by Waymo adheres to the leaping route and crosses the L3 level to directly launch the L4-class self-driving car.
However, as the autonomous driving technology is still being explored, some financial companies with financial strength will adopt a gradual and leaping route in parallel in order to achieve mass production as soon as possible. For example, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Honda and other auto giants are actively promoting the mass production of L3 conditional auto-driving cars, and insisting on the verification of L4-class self-driving cars.
In the aspect of autonomous driving technology, it is necessary to establish breakthroughs in core technologies such as deep learning and car networking. In addition to technology, the premise of the popularity of autonomous vehicles is the development of relevant laws and regulations.
Legislation promotes the arrival of the era of autonomous vehicles
Studies have shown that the popularity of self-driving cars can effectively reduce the traffic accident rate. According to McKinsey's report: the full popularity of autonomous vehicles can reduce traffic accidents by 90%, reduce damages and medical expenses by $190 billion annually, and save thousands of lives. The current autonomous driving technology is still far from taking off, and the company is still focusing on the automatic driving of the L3 or L4 level. In addition, even if the self-driving car is fully popular, we have to face the remaining 10% of traffic accidents.
Most car companies have announced mass production of L3-class conditional self-driving cars around 2020, and production of L4-class self-driving cars in 2025. As autonomous vehicles begin to commercialize, there will be a transition period of intelligent transportation that mixes human driving and autonomous driving.
At the same time, the liability and compensation for traffic accidents during the transition period has become more complicated. The parties to the future traffic accidents will appear "human driving cars - human driving cars, human driving cars - self-driving cars, self-driving cars - self-driving cars, human driving cars - pedestrians, self-driving cars - pedestrians, human driving cars - Non-motor vehicles, self-driving cars - non-motor vehicles, etc. Based on this, it is extremely important to establish a comprehensive autonomous vehicle traffic regulations in advance.
National Auto Driving Vehicle Accidents Focus on L3 Level
At present, although the system does not establish a system of auto-driving car regulations, but for the auto-driving car accidents, some countries have given a preliminary solution. Countries represented by Germany, the United States, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom all focus on L3-class cars in the event of autonomous car accidents.
·Germany
In July 2017, Germany introduced the first self-driving car bill, which preliminarily identified the problem of auto-driving car accidents. The Act stipulates that the accident occurs during the manual driving phase and the relevant liability is owned by the driver; if it occurs during the operation of the system or due to a system failure, the autopilot car manufacturer is responsible. It is reported that the regulation will be revised in 2019, and it is believed that more details will be clarified by then.
·United States
On September 12, 2017, the US Department of Transportation released Automated Driving System 2.0: Safety Vision to replace the 2016 Federal Autopilot Vehicle Policy. The new vision is aimed at the L3-L5 autonomous driving system and includes 12 non-mandatory safety design elements. One of them is that the ADAS system should be able to detect malfunctions, degradation or operations outside the ODD range, and can notify the driver in some way to retake the vehicle or initiate a minimum risk scenario.
·Japan
In March of this year, the Japanese government proposed the "Autonomous Driving System Regulations", which stipulated the responsibility for L3-level auto-driving car accidents: "In principle, the vehicle owner shall be liable for compensation, and the self-driving car will be treated the same as ordinary cars; The responsibility is limited to the existence of a clear flaw in the car system; when an external hacker invades the car system and causes an accident, the damage is compensated by the government.” It is reported that the Japanese government will submit the relevant bill to the Congress in 2019. Recently, the self-driving car safety technical guide issued by Japan still clarifies the problem of L4 level self-driving car accident liability.
·China
At present, China's relevant laws and regulations on smart cars have not yet been released, but the cities have successively issued relevant guidelines for public road testing of autonomous vehicles. Vehicles applying for road test must comply with the national motor vehicle safety technical conditions, and can switch between automatic and manual driving modes at any time. During the road test, the self-driving car needs to be equipped with a tester. In the event of an accident, the tester shall bear the corresponding legal responsibility in accordance with the traffic control regulations.
·United Kingdom
In July 2018, the British government passed the Auto and Electric Vehicles Act. The Act clarifies the rules for self-driving auto insurance and liability. Accidents occur during the automatic driving process. Depending on whether the vehicle is underwritten or not, the insurer and the owner of the vehicle are liable for damages. At the same time, the bill also establishes the liability exemption and recovery system for insurance companies and car owners. In the event of a common fault, the liability of the insurer or the owner of the vehicle can be reduced.
In addition, car companies have also expressed their attitude towards the ethics of autonomous driving cars and traffic accidents. For example, the Mercedes-Benz Group said that all future L4 and L5 self-driving cars of Mercedes-Benz will choose to give priority to protecting passengers inside the car. The person in charge of Audi said that Audi will bear all legal responsibilities after the traffic accident of the L3 Audi A8. Volvo also issued a statement that the company will also assume full legal responsibility for traffic accidents after the sale of self-driving cars begins in 2020.
The above content reflects the attitude of car companies to the autonomous driving car. With a clear division of accident responsibility, the road to autonomous driving will be smoother.
However, the auto-driving car traffic legislation still needs to be improved by all countries. The future traffic accident liability subjects involve automobile hardware suppliers, software system developers, third-party hackers, vehicle supervision and management institutions, etc. It is believed that with the advancement of technology, There are more explicit regulations on autonomous driving traffic.
