Autonomous motoring law needed

The National Transport Commission has welcomed the news that transport ministers are agreed that the country needs new legislation for autonomous cars, harmonised across all states and territories.

Due to be implemented in 2020, the proposed new legislation would allocate responsibility for an automated vehicle's compliance with road rules.

"With automated vehicles, there will be times when an ‘automated driving system', rather than a human, will be in control of the vehicle. We need a nationally consistent law to know who is in control of a motor vehicle at any point in time," says Paul Retter, Chief Executive of the NTC.

"Without a change to existing laws or new law, there would be no-one to hold responsible for compliance with our road rules when an automated driving system is in control of a vehicle," Retter was quoted saying in a press release.

The transport ministers met on May 18 and ratified the agreement then, but the legislation is yet to be drafted. Last year the NTC issued a discussion paper concerning a uniform law applicable to Automated Driving Systems (ADS) after seeking feedback from stakeholders. In the discussion paper, the NTC argued that the ADS should be permitted to operate on public roads, but it should also operate under the guidance of a responsible legal entity.

That legal entity may be a corporation, such as Volvo, which has previously accepted liability in the event that one of its self-driving cars should malfunction, leading to loss of life or property damage. Recently, a Volvo XC90 (pictured) operated by Uber in the USA was at the centre of a fatal collision with a pedestrian, but the Volvo's on-board autonomous systems had been disabled and the vehicle was operating autonomously through Uber's own ADS.

The proposed Aussie legislation will impose obligations on the person or ADS controlling the vehicle. That suggests any ADS approved for Australia will have to comply with local law that may not be in harmony with similar legislation throughout the rest of the world.

Lastly, the legislation will "provide flexible compliance and enforcement options", which reads like the legislation would allow some operational latitude for ADS developed overseas, and not lock law enforcement agents into a course of action that would unfairly penalise a responsible legal entity.

Retter believes that the proposed law will provide manufacturers the certainty of a legislative framework for the development of new, autonomous-capable cars. Consequently, it may hasten the adoption of ADS technology in Australia. Such cars are anticipated to begin hitting local roads from around the time the legislation is anticipated to be implemented – in 2020. The NTC expects to be closely involved in the drafting of the legislation.

"This is a considerable change to national road transport laws, to support the significant changes we see coming in transport technology," Mr Retter said.