Autonomous Driving

28 Feb 2019
Several countries around the world are moving at high speeds to bring networked and automated mobility onto the market. “The EU must respond much more quickly to the developments in this sector,” demanded members of the European parliament recently in an unbinding resolution, which was adopted with a large majority. The members of the European Parliament welcome the communication from the European Commission, “On the Road to Automated Mobility,” as an important milestone in the EU strategy for networked and automated mobility. However, they emphasize that further efforts would be required to provide sufficient funds to support the sector and to ensure adequate safety and liability regulations.
At the same time, they are calling on the commission and the EU member states to uphold their leading role in the international and technical harmonization of automated vehicles as part of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Vienna Convention. In addition, the members of the European Parliament are demanding the development of safety systems that can ensure the coexistence of automated vehicles and vehicles that are neither connected nor automated. Moreover, existing EU liability regulations need to be developed further. For software-operated vehicles in particular, in the event of accidents, the question that arises is “Who is responsible, the driver or the manufacturer?”
In the view of members of the European Parliament, research should also concentrate on the long-term effects of autonomous traffic. Topics such as consumer adaptation, societal acceptance, physiological reactions, physical reactions, and accident prevention should be focused on here. “Europe needs to be innovative, but faster. China and the USA will not wait,” said Rapporteur Wim Van de Camp from the European People’s Party.