Prospects of Legal Regulating Use of Driverless Transportation Vehicles in the Russian Federation

Alexei Deineko

doi:10.17323/2713-2749.2021.3.33.57

Alexei Deineko National Research University Higher School of Economics https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3700-7364

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/2713-2749.2021.3.33.57

Keywords: theory of law, information law, artificial intelligence, robotics, driverless vehicles, robotic vehicles, digitalization, experimental legal regimes, regulatory sandbox, information security

Abstract

The article reviews the new Russian legislation introducing the experimental legal regime for the use of highly automated transportation vehicles (HATVs) (driverless vehicles) on public roads. The article analyzes strategic planning documents related to the subject, such as the governmental Traffic Safety Concept for Public Roads with Driverless Transportation Vehicles (DTVs) and the European Union’s documents regulating the use of robots and artificial intelligence (AI). Drafts of the relevant laws presently at the stage of public debate or discussion at the Duma are reviewed. The Russian experience of legal regulation is compared to the international experience, with conclusions made about possible directions for the development of the legislation. The article broaches the issues of apportioning tort and administrative
liability for damage caused by the use of HATVs or as a result of a breach of the road rules by such vehicles. The obvious hurdles in the way of imposing liability on a robot or an AI algorithm underscore the need to hold on to the classic tort liability model adjudicating claims of damage caused by hazardous objects and modify this model to make is usable for situations when damage is caused by a DTV. In a separate section, this article addresses issues related to the use of delivery robots — the objects do not fit the definition of transportation vehicles provided in the road rules and in the drafts of legal acts currently being prepared. The conclusion is made that judicial opinions should provide clarifications for accidents involving such vehicles because, moving along sidewalks and crossing traffic areas, they are actually road
users. As for risks for personal rights and freedoms associated with the use of DTVs, this writer focuses on risks related to the collection and use of passengers’ personal data, as well as risks of mass layoffs arising from the probable decline in demand for taxi and truck drivers and street traffic controllers. Relying on the results of the analysis, this author suggests how to proceed with the legal regulation of the use of HATVs and reflects on legal and socio-economic implications of their large-scale use in Russia.

Author Biography

Alexei Deineko, National Research University Higher School of Economics

Candidate of Sciences (Law), Professor, Associate Member of the UNESCO Chair on Copyright, Related, Cultural and Information Rights, State Councellor of the Russian Federation, 2nd class.

References

Antimonov B.S. (1952) Tort Liability for Harm Caused by a Hazardous Object [Grazhdanskaya otvetstvennost’ za vred, prichinyonnyy istochnikom povyshennoy opasnosti]. Moscow: Uridicheskaya literature. 300 p. (In Russ,).

Chuchaev A.I., Malikov S.V. (2019) Responsibility for Damage Caused by a Highly Automated Transportation Vehicle: The Current State of Affairs and Prospects for the Future” [Otvetstvennost’ za prichinenie ushcherba vysokoavtomatizirovannym transportnym sredstvom: sostoyanie i perspektivy]. Aktual’nye problemy rossiyskogo prava = Current Issues of Russian Law, no. 6, pp. 117–124. Available at: URL: https://cyberlen-inka.ru/article/n/otvetstvennost-za-prichinenie-uscherba-vysokoav-tomatizirovannym-transportnym-sredstvom-sostoyanie-i-perspektivy (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Еngelhard E., de Bruin R. (2018) Liability for Damage Caused by Autonomous Vehicles. The Hague: Eleven International publishing. Avail-able at: URL: https://researchgate.net/publication/338431011_book_on_autonomous_vehicles_2018 (accessed: Oct.1, 2021)

Fleishits E.A. (1951) Obligations Originating from the Causing of Damage and Liabilities Originating from Unjustified Enrichment [Obyazatel’stva iz prichineniya vreda i obyazatel’stva iz neosnovatel’nogo obogashcheniya]. Moscow: Gosurizdat, 240 p. (In Russ.).

Kamalova G.G. (2020) Some Issues of Criminal Responsibility Associated with Application of Artificial Intelligence Systems and Robotics [Nekotorye voprosy ugolovno-pravovoy otvetstvennosti v sfere primeneniya sistem iskusstvennogo intellekta i robototekhniki]. Vestnik Udmurtskogo universiteta. Seriya «Ekonomika i pravo = Transactions of Udmurt State University. Economy and Law Series, no. 3, pp. 382–388. Available at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nekotorye-voprosy-ugolovno-pravovoy-otvetstvennosti-v-sfere-primeneniya-sistem-iskusstvennogo-intellekta-i-robototehniki (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Komarov S.V., Stolbova N.V., Neznamov A.V., Chudinov O.R. (2019) Review of the Panel Discussion Self-Driving Cars: Moral Challenges and Legal Regulation (Dec.3, 2018) Obzor panel’noy diskussii «Bespilotnye avtomobili moral’nye vyzovy i pravovoe regulirovanie» (03.12.2018). Tekhnologos=Tehnologos, 2019, no. 2, pp. 52–67. DOI: 10.15593/perm.kipf/2019.2.05 Available at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/obzor-panelnoy-diskussii-bespilotnye-avtomobili-moralnye-vyzovy-i-pravovoe-regulirovanie-3-dekabrya-2018-goda/viewer (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Lazutkina V.S., Pokusaev O.N., Kupriyanovsky,V.P., Sinyagov S.A.(2019) Economic Effects of Autonomous (Driverless) Cars [Ekonomicheskie effekty avtonomnykh (bespilotnykh) avtomobiley]. International Journal of Open Information Technologies , no. 2, pp. 66–80. Available at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ekonomicheskie-effekty-avtonomnyh-bespilotnyh-avtomobiley (accessed: Oct. 1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Makarov V.O. (2020) Practical Aspects of the Introduction of Regulatory Sandboxes into the Russian Legislation in the Context of the Coming into Force of Federal Law 258-FZ On Digital Innovation Experimental Legal Regimes in the Russian Federation’” [Prakticheskie voprosy vnedreniya instituta regulyativnykh pesochnits v rossiyskoe zakonodatel’stvo v kontekste vstupleniya v silu federal’nogo zakona ot 31.07.2020 N 258-FZ “Ob eksperimental’nykh pravovykh rezhimakh v sfere tsifrovykh inno-vatsiy v Rossiyskoy Federatsii”]. Yuridicheskie issledovaniya = Legal Re-search, 2020, no. 11, pp. 18–24. Available at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/prakticheskie-voprosy-vnedreniya-instituta-regulyativnyh-pesochnits-v-rossiyskoe-zakonodatelstvo-v-kontekste-vstupleniya-v-silu (accessed: Sept.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Naumov V.B., Butrimovich Ya.V., Kotov A.A. (2020) Ensuring a High Quality of Legal Regulation of Experimental Legal Regimes [Obespechenie vysokogo kachestva pravovogo regulirovaniya eksperimental’nykh pravovykh rezhimov]. Rossiyskoe pravo: obrazovanie, praktika, nauka = Russian Law: Educaton, Practice, Scholarship, no. 3, pp. 40–49. Avail-able at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/obespechenie-kachest-va-pravovogo-regulirovaniya-eksperimentalnyh-pravovyh-rezhimov (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.)

Neznamov A.V. (2018) Rules of Autonomous Driving: On Amendments to the Convention on Road Traffic [Pravila bespilotnogo vozhdeniya: ob izmeneniyakh Venskoy konventsii o dorozhnom dvizhenii]. Zakon = Law, no. 1, pp. 172–182. (In Russ.).

Rumyantsev N.V., Zhuravlev V.V. (2020) Administrative Regulation of Highly Automated Transportation Vehicles on Public Roads [Administrativno-pravovoe regulirovanie uchastiya vysokoavtomatizirovannykh transportnykh sredstv v dorozhnom dvizhenii]. Vestnik ekonomicheskoy bezopasnosti=Newsletter of Economic Safety, no. 5, pp. 196–200. Avail-able at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/administrativno-pravo-voe-regulirovanie-uchastiya-vysokoavtomatizirovannyh-transportnyh-sredstv-v-dorozhnom-dvizhenii (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Shadrin S.S., Ivanova A.A. (2019) Analytical Review of SAE Standards J3016 Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems for Onroad Motor Vehicles’ with Latest Updates [Analiticheskiy obzor standarta SAE J3016 Klassifikatsiya, termina i opredeleniya sistem avtomatizirovannogo upravleniya dvizheniem ATS s uchyoetom poslednikh izmeneniy]. In: Avtomobil. Doroga. Infrastructura = Automobile. Roads. Infrastructure, no. 3. Available at: URL: https://adi-madi.ru/madi/article/viewFile/811/pdf_478 (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Shaklein A.G., Pokusaev O.N., Kupriyanovsky V.P., Ovsyannikov M.L., Lazutkina V.S. (2019) The Motives for the Use of Autonomous (Driverless) Cars in the EC and the USA [Motivy vnedreniya avtonomnykh (bespilotnykh) avtomobiley v EC i SShA]. International Journal of Open Information Technologies, no.1, pp. 104–114. Available at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/motivy-vnedreniya-avtonomnyh-bespilotnyh-avtomobiley-v-ec-i-ssha (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Susskind D. (2021) A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond [Mir bez raboty. Tekhnologiya, avtomatizatsiya i stoit li ikh boyat’sya]. Moscow: Individuum, p. 40. (In Russ.)

Voronin D.A., Makarevich M.L. (2018) Some Issues of Legal Regulation of Self-Driving Vehicles [Problemy pravovogo regulirovaniya avtonomnogo transporta]. Innovatsionnaya ekonomika: perspektivy razvitia i sovershenstvovania = Innovation Economy: Prospects of Development and Improvement, no. 7, vol. 1, pp. 123–128. Available at: URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problemy-pravovogo-regulirovaniya-avtonomnogo-transporta (accessed: Oct.1, 2021) (In Russ.).

Wolkenstein A. (2018) What Has the Trolley Dilemma Ever Done For Us (And What Will It Do in the Future)? On Recent Debates about the Ethics of Self-Driving Cars”. Ethics and InformationTechnology, vol. 20, no 3, pp. 163–173.