International Comparisons

Abstract

Progress in automated driving can hardly be clearly distinguished from advances in other areas of technology. This includes areas such as robotics and autonomics, sensor technology and advances in information and communication technologies. Conclusions drawn from legal analyses and assessments in these fields can therefore be applied mutatis mutandis to the problems of autonomous vehicles and their driving. The central characteristics of the impending transformation in road transport, which entails that the latter will become part of the Internet of Things (IoT),1 dictate the need to research, examine, discuss and analyse the way in which different jurisdictions have regulated or plan to regulate autonomous vehicles and their operation through the current or future enactment of legislation, in an effort to detect common patterns in regulation and ways to better tackle the arising issues. Hence, this chapter discusses the laws in place or in preparation for autonomous vehicles and automated driving as well as, wherever the gathered research material allows us, the transformation and impact of autonomous vehicles regulation on motor insurance in the various jurisdictions, the various cyber risks and the new technologies issues in relation to autonomous vehicles. The jurisdictions researched, discussed and analysed are Greece, Germany, Austria, Italy, the US and South Africa.