The German Ministry of Transport has proposed introducing a black box on board every autonomous vehicle. An initiative aimed at strengthening safety and clarifying liability in the event of an accident.
One of the main obstacles to the widespread adoption of self-driving autonomous vehicles is not technical in nature, but regulatory. Current regulations, particularly regarding liability, do not in fact account for the possibility that a driver might entrust themselves wholly or partially to a car's artificial intelligence. This is far from a minor hurdle, especially when considering the insurance and compensation implications of an accident. To address this problem, Germany is exploring the possibility of making a black box compulsory for all semi-autonomous vehicles.
The black box is an electronic device installed on board a car and tasked with recording data on the vehicle's operation. "On board semi-autonomous vehicles – stated German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt – it will make it possible to establish any liabilities in the event of an accident, by collecting information and facilitating investigations after a crash." The device is specifically required to provide a record of the activation or deactivation of the vehicle's autonomous management system, so as to verify whether, at the moment of the collision, it was the onboard computer or the driver who had control of the vehicle.
In addition to the activation or deactivation of the autonomous driving system, the black box will provide reliable information on any human interventions in the car's automated management logic and, conversely, on failure to intervene despite explicit prompts to take the controls. The proposal to introduce the device comes on the eve of the anticipated 2017 debut of a considerable number of level 3 autonomous models. That is to say, according to the NHTSA classification – the US government agency forming part of the Department of Transportation and tasked with overseeing safety – cars capable of driving without any driver input in limited situations, with the ability to hand control back to a human should circumstances arise that the computer is unable to manage.
The introduction of the black box could lead to an amendment of the German Highway Code and would at the same time represent one of the first concrete measures adopted on the matter by a state. A decision aimed at raising safety standards on board vehicles capable of driving without the input of a driver, who is nonetheless required to remain alert and responsive.