Intelligent Transport Systems

12 Review of Legal Aspects Relating to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Alastair R. Ruddle and Lester Low

MIRA Ltd, Nuneaton, UK

12.1 Introduction

The adoption of intelligent transport systems (ITS) technologies is expected to bring many benefits to society in the areas of transport safety, mobility, and sustainability. However, the use of increasingly complex technological solutions to improve the safety of road users is accompanied by considerable uncertainty regarding legal liability for injuries and other damage that could result from defects of such systems (e.g. failures or malfunctions). Meanwhile, the increasing exploitation of personal data in intelligent mobility systems, such as e-Call and road tolling schemes, also raises concerns relating to data protection and the need to ensure the privacy of individuals. Furthermore, these uncertainties are exacerbated by the need to satisfy a range of different legal frameworks, which vary from country to country, and the mismatch between the pace of technological change and the rate at which suitable legislation can be developed. For example, a consultation carried out in Europe in 2008 [1] found that 61% of the respondents believed that uncertainty relating to liability and data protection aspects were major issues for the development of ITS, with only 15% considering that these issues were not significant obstacles to ITS development.

The term ITS covers a wide variety of applications ranging from traffic information ...