ROADPOL Taking Fight For

Automated Vehicle Data Access

To Top of EU

       Crash investigations are in danger if police have no access to in-vehicle data of automated cars. PHOTO: POLITIA.RO16 MAY - ROADPOL is taking its fight to allowing automated vehicle data access to police authorities for the sake of comprehensible road crash investigations up to the highest authorities in the EU.

Together with the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis, EVU, and the global leader in vehicle inspection, DEKRA, the European Roads Policing Network is urgently calling on the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to act on specific legislation in the field of the automated vehicles of the future.

Letter

“Delays have real-world consequences. Sector-specific legislation is indispensable for vehicle inspection, road policing and crash analysis to be appropriately carried out in the future”, the three entities say in a letter to Mrs. Von Der Leyen, reminding her that a proposal for the extension of type approval legislation is waiting to be passed on and is in danger of being delayed until after the next European elections in 2024. Without the necessary regulatory framework, exclusive technical access of manufacturers to vehicle data would compromise the fulfilment of sovereign tasks. “A lack of action by the European Commission would lead to isolated solutions depending on individual member states or vehicle manufacturers”, the letter says.

Task

“Apart from their main task of traffic enforcement, European traffic police forces also have to investigate road accidents. With increasing automation and connectivity in vehicles, data access is becoming a more and more important factor in this task”, says ROADPOL president Elvira Zsinkai. “Police need direct access to reliable vehicle data in order to secure forensic evidence for the reconstruction of the accident.”

Importance

“Access to the relevant in-vehicle data is absolutely essential – otherwise, police and prosecutors as well as vehicle inspection organizations and accident analysis experts will not be able to do their important job, with vehicles becoming more and more automated and connected”, states DEKRA CEO Stan Zurkiewicz. “Delaying European legislation on this matter is against the consumers’ interest.”

EVU president Jörg Ahlgrimm stresses this aspect: “For the purpose of determining the cause of a crash, data generated in vehicles are becoming a major source of information. Accident analysts will only be able to find out what happened of the relevant data is accessible for them – without limitations by manufacturers or system providers. Soon we will have to be able to determine whether, at a specific point of time, a vehicle was controlled by the person in the driver’s seat or by an automated system. Authorities absolutely need to have easy and quick access to the relevant data in such cases.”

The same goes for vehicle inspection, says DEKRA as the global number one in the field, carrying out more than 28 million inspections a year in 24 countries around the world. “Periodical-technical inspection is a vital means to ensure that vehicles are safe, secure and comply with environmental regulations throughout their lifecycle”, stresses DEKRA CEO Zurkiewicz. “When vehicle systems depend on software, such as advanced driver assistant systems and automated driving systems, we need independent and trusted access to unmodified and non-pre-filtered data to verify the correct functionality.”

FRAND

ROADPOL, EVU and DEKRA experts are calling for a user-centric approach and for data access to be provided under the so-called “FRAND” principles, which means fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access. Above all, the organizations are urging the European Commission to come forward with a draft sector-specific legislation without any further delay to ensure that it can be referred to co-legislators within the Parliamentary term.