President Orben at WPS:

No To Manufacturer Monopoly

On Autonomous Vehicle Data

14 APR - No monopoly for manufacturers on in-vehicle data of autonomous vehicles.

The stance was once again reiterated by ROADPOL President Volker Orben at the latest World Police Summit. Mr. Orben was a keynote speaker at the event held in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates in March.

Discussion

During a Leadership panel discussion focused on the topic of “Enforcing safer surface mobility: how can police innovate and collaborate to create secure transport networks?” Orben brought up the issue, which according to ROADPOL is crucial for the future of road safety and especially for the road crash investigations of the future. The discussion was moderated by Lt. Col. Abdulla Al Falasi, the emirate's Chief of Traffic Police and a ROADPOL Council member. “Autonomous driving will have a serious impact on the future of road safety. But how are we investigate the road crashed involving such vehicles? Investigations aim at reconstruct how the accident happened – which is a precondition to decide who caused it. Automated vehicles have no drivers who can be questioned how the accident happened. Hence Police need access to reliable vehicle data in order to secure forensic evidence”, said Mr. Orben at the forum.

Storage

Orben urged that Police need access to reliable data. For the purpose of accident research and cause of crashes data generated in vehicles must be stored in neutral trust centers and be accessible for the legitimate stakeholders – without limitations by manufacturers or system providers. “We must be able to determine whether, at a specific point of time, the vehicle was controlled by the user or by an automated system. Authorities need to have easy and quick access to the relevant data in such cases. When it comes to possible malfunctions of automated systems as a cause for accidents, storing the data in a neutral place will be especially significant”, Mr. Orben further noted.

Access

“There are numerous sector-specific legislations which regulate access to data of electronic devices and even home appliances. Manufacturers use this data to maintain devices remotely and enhance user satisfaction.But data access cannot only pertain to business-to-business use cases. Sovereign use cases absolutely need to be included, when there is a need for it. This is no less in the consumers’ interest”, Mr. Orben explained.

Initiative

He reminded that earlier on ROADPOL, the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis (EVU) and the global leader in vehicle inspection, DEKRA, calle for extending of data access to connected and automated vehicles. The three partners urged the European Commission to draw up specific legislation in view of its Data Act proposal which is to set up general principles for access to and use of data generated by products. It is imperative for this legislation, ROADPOL, EVU and DEKRA insist, to cover access to in-vehicle data which is needed to carry out sovereign tasks, such as road accident investigation and analysis, vehicle inspection, and prosecution (Read more).