AUTONOMOUS (DRIVERLESS) CARS AND AN ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The developments of moderntechnology offer new ways to improveour daily lives. Autonomous agentswill be an important part of our futureand autonomous (driverless) cars arescheduled to be on the public roads soon.This technology will help reduce themassive traffic casualties world-wide andoffer people the chance to gain back thetime that is lost in their daily commute.However, such a technology presentsvarious legal challenges as well. Today, thecurrent laws are not equipped to handleclaims arising from full autonomy. Areassuch as personhood status, civil liability,cyber security and protection of personaldata should be regulated in order to ensurethat the technology is beneficial to society,without posing serious risks. The EuropeanParliament adopted the “Civil Law Ruleson Robotics” resolution on February16th, 2017 with recommendations tothe European Commission for a newlegislation. The resolution offers importantsuggestions in regulating the autonomousrobots and ground breaking suggestions onpersonhood status of autonomous robotsand the civil liability that will arise fromtheir actions. The Parliament’s suggestionshave been attracting attention world-wideand if legislated, can set a precedent forthe rest of the world.

Otonom (Sürücüsüz) Araçlar Ve Avrupa Parlamentosu’nun Yasa Tasarısının Analizi̇

Teknolojik gelişmeler bizlere günlük hayatlarımızı birçok yönden geliştirme fırsatları sunuyor. Otonom nesneler yakın geleceğimizin çok önemli bir parçası olacaklar ve bu yeni teknolojinin gündelik hayata en önemli etkilerinden biri de yakında yollarda görmeyi beklediğimiz otonom (sürücüsüz) araçlar olacaktır. Bu teknoloji sayesinde dünya çapında trafik kazalarına bağlı yaşanan ölüm ve yaralanmalar çok ciddi oranda azalacağı gibi, aynı zamanda insanlara trafikte kaybedilen zamanını değerlendirme şansını sunulacaktır. Ancak, bu teknolojinin kullanımı, yasal olarak birçok zorluğu da beraberinde getirmektedir. Günümüzde mevcut yasal normlar tam otonom nesnelerin neden oldukları uyuşmazlıkların çözümü için yeterli değildir. Böylesine önemli teknolojik gelişmelerin toplumun yararına olması ve kullanımlarının insanlara zarar verici mahiyette olmaması adına, kişilik hakları, yasal sorumluluk, siber güvenlik ve kişisel verilerin korunması alanlarında yasal düzenlemelerin yapılması zorunludur. Avrupa Parlamentosu tarafından kabul edilen “Robotlar İçin Medeni Hukuk Kuralları” yasa tasarısında, otonom robotların yasalaştırılması hususu ve özellikle robotların kişilik statüsü ve otonom davranışlarından kaynaklanacak zararlardan doğacak hukuki sorumluluk konularında önemli prensipler belirlendi. Parlamento’nun dünya çapında yankı uyandıran bu tasarısı yasalaşacak olursa, tüm dünyaya emsal teşkil edecek niteliktedir.

PDF

___

Internet Movie Database “IMDb”, Back to the Future Part II http://www.imdb. com/title/tt0096874/?ref_=nv_sr_2 (Access date: 22.12.2017)

CNN Money, Ahiza Garcia, Nike’s self-lacing HyperAdapt Sneaker Will Cost You $720. (2016) http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/15/news/companies/nikehyperadapt-self-lacing/index.html (Access date: 22.12.2017)

Hendo Hoverboards http://hendohover.com/the-hendo-hoverboard/ (Access date: 22.12.2017)

Turkish Statistical Institute, Road Traffic Accident Statistics 2016 www.tuik. gov.tr/PdfGetir.do?id=24606 (Access date: 23.12.2017)

Wired, Aarian Marshall, To Save the Most Lives, Deploy (Imperfect) SelfDriving Cars ASAP (2017) https://www.wired.com/story/self-driving-carsrand-report/ (Access date: 23.12.2017)

Stanford Law, Center For Internet and Society, Bryant Walker Smith, Human Error as a Cause of Vehicle Crashes (2013) http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/ blog/2013/12/human-error-cause-vehicle-crashes (Access date: 23.12.2017)

European Parliament / Legislative Observatory, Statistics, Results of Final Vote 16.02.2017 (2017) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda. do?id=28110&l=en (Access date: 06.01.2018)

The European Parliament resolution of 16.02.2017 with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics http://www.europarl. europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+TA+P8-TA-2017- 0051+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN (Access date: 19.12.2017)

M. Buning & L. Belder & R. de Bruin, Mapping the Legal Framework for the Introduction into Society of Robots as Autonomous Intelligent Systems (Law of the Future Series Volume II, 2012) https://www.fichl.org/fileadmin/fichl/ documents/LOTFS/LOTFS_1_Web.pdf (Access date: 24.12.2017)

Car and Driver, Path to Autonomy: Self-Driving Car Levels 0 to 5 Explained (2017) https://www.caranddriver.com/features/path-to-autonomy-selfdriving-car-levels-0-to-5-explained-feature (Access date: 24.12.2017)

Revolvy, Houdina Radio Control https://www.revolvy.com/main/index. php?s=Houdina+Radio+Control (Access date: 24.12.2017)

Engineering.com, The Road to Driverless Cars: 1925 – 2025 (2016) https:// www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/12665/ The-Road-to-Driverless-Cars-1925--2025.aspx (Access date: 24.12.2017)

Stanford University, Les Earnest, Stanford Cart (2012) http://web.stanford. edu/~learnest/cart.htm (Access date: 24.12.2017)

Autoevolution, Alex Oagana, A Short History of Mercedes-Benz Autonomous Driving Technology (2016) https://www.autoevolution.com/news/a-shorthistory-of-mercedes-benz-autonomous-driving-technology-68148.html (Access date: 24.12.2017)

Digital Trends, Luke Dormehl & Stephen Edelstein, Sit back, relax, and enjoy a ride through the history of self-driving cars (2018) https://www.digitaltrends. com/cars/history-of-self-driving-cars-milestones/ (Access date: 22.01.2018)

Wired, Tom Vanderbilt, Autonomous Cars Through the Ages (2012) https:// www.wired.com/2012/02/autonomous-vehicle-history/ (Access date: 23.12.2017)

U.S. National Conference of State Legislatures, Autonomous Vehicles | SelfDriving Vehicles Enacted Legislation (2018) http://www.ncsl.org/research/ transportation/autonomous-vehicles-self-driving-vehicles-enactedlegislation.aspx (Access date: 28.12.2017)

Innovate UK, Driverless cars: 4 cities get green light for everyday trials (2014) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driverless-cars-4-cities-get-greenlight-for-everyday-trials (Access date: 28.12.2017)

Business Insider, Mark Matousek, The most impressive things Tesla’s cars can do in Autopilot (2017) http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-autopilotfunctions-and-technology-2017-12/#all-new-tesla-cars-have-the-necessaryhardware-for-enhanced-autopilot-but-customers-have-to-pay-to-turnthe-semi-autonomous-system-on-enhanced-autopilot-costs-5000-at-thetime-of-purchase-or-a-buyer-can-activate-it-later-for-6000-5 (Access date:28.12.2017)

Google, Waymo - Journey https://waymo.com/journey/ (Access date: 02.01.2018)

Google, Waymo - On the Road https://waymo.com/ontheroad/ (Access date: 02.01.2018)

Financial Times, Richard Waters, Google Owner Test First Driverless Car On City Streets (2017) https://www.ft.com/content/397134f8-c36c-11e7-a1d2- 6786f39ef675 (Access date: 02.01.2018)

Business Insider, Danielle Muoio, These 19 companies are racing to put driverless cars on the road by 2020 (2016) http://www.businessinsider.com/ google-apple-tesla-race-to-develop-driverless-cars-by-2020-2016-7/#baidua-beijing-based-search-company-is-aiming-to-have-a-commercial-model-of-its-driverless-car-ready-by-2018-12 (Access date: 02.01.2018)

Business Insider, John Rosevear, Here’s how soon you could be riding in a driverless car (2017) http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-soon-youcould-be-riding-in-a-driverless-car-2017-12 (Access date: 02.01.2018)

TEDx Cambridge, Iyad Rahwan, What Moral Decisions Should Driverless Cars Make? (2016) https://www.ted.com/talks/iyad_rahwan_what_moral_ decisions_should_driverless_cars_make (Access date: 30.12.2017) https:// www.ted.com/speakers/iyad_rahwan (Access date: 30.12.2017) INRIX 2016 Traffic Scorecard http://inrix.com/resources/inrix-2016-trafficscorecard-us/ (Access date: 23.12.2017)

TomTom Traffic Index Istanbul https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/trafficindex/ city/istanbul (Access date: 23.12.2017)

The Guardian, D. Yadron & D. Tynan, Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode (2016) https://www.theguardian.com/ technology/2016/jun/30/tesla-autopilot-death-self-driving-car-elon-musk (Access date: 21.12.2017)

CNN, Chris Isidore, Driver killed in Tesla crash was warned seven times to put hands on wheel (2017) http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/20/technology/teslaautopilot-fatal-crash-warnings/index.html (Access date: 21.12.2017)

The New York Times, Neal E. Boudette, Tesla’s Self-Driving System Cleared in Deadly Crash (2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/business/teslamodel-s-autopilot-fatal-crash.html (Access date: 21.12.2017)

EU Directive 85/374/EEC - Liability for Defective Products https://osha. europa.eu/en/legislation/directives/council-directive-85-374-eec (Access date: 02.01.2018)

AAA Newsroom, Erin Stepp, Three-Quarters of Americans “Afraid” to Ride in a Self-Driving Vehicle (2016) http://newsroom.aaa.com/2016/03/threequarters-of-americans-afraid-to-ride-in-a-self-driving-vehicle/ (Access date: 21.12.2017)

The Guardian, Samuel Gibbs, Jeep owners urged to update their cars after hackers take remote control (2015) https://www.theguardian.com/ technology/2015/jul/21/jeep-owners-urged-update-car-software-hackersremote-control (Access date: 28.12.2017)

The Guardian, Dominic Rushe, Most cars are vulnerable to ‘hacking or privacy intrusions’ (2015) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/09/ most-cars-vulnerable-hacking-privacy-intrusions-senate-report (Access date: 28.12.2017)

Search Security, Ransomware http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/ definition/ransomware (Access date: 02.01.2018) WhatIs, Machine Learning, http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/machinelearning (Access date: 02.01.2018)

Vox, David Roberts, 1.8 million American truck drivers could lose their jobs to robots. What then? (2016) https://www.vox.com/2016/8/3/12342764/ autonomous-trucks-employment (Access date: 04.01.2018)

Mobility Lab, Ethan Goffman, How can truck-driver jobs fit into a driverless economy? (2017) https://mobilitylab.org/2017/12/19/can-truck-driver-jobsfit-driverless-economy/ (Access date: 04.01.2018)

The European Robotics Coordination Action, Suggestion for a green paper on legal issues in robotics, Christophe Leroux & Roberto Labruto (2012) https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/310167745_A_green_paper_on_legal_ issues_in_robotics (Access date: 19.12.2017)

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) http://ec.europa.eu/justice/dataprotection/reform/files/regulation_oj_en.pdf (Access date: 04.01.2018)

39th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, https://www.privacyconference2017.org/eng/index.html (Access date: 04.01.2018)

The National Law Review, Katherine E. Armstrong, Connected Car Resolution adopted by the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (2017) https://www.natlawreview.com/article/connectedcar-resolution-adopted-international-conference-data-protection-and (Access date: 04.01.2018)

The Atlantic, Adrienne Lafrance, Self-Driving Cars Could Save 300,000 Lives Per Decade in America (2015) https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ archive/2015/09/self-driving-cars-could-save-300000-lives-per-decade-inamerica/407956/ (Access date: 23.12.2017)

Samir Chopra & Laurence White, Artificial Agents - Personhood in Law and Philosophy http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~schopra/agentlawsub.pdf (Access date: 08.01.2018)

Thomas Pérennou, State of the Art on Legal Issues (2014) https://ethicaa. greyc.fr/media/files/ethicaa.delivrable.1.pdf (Access date: 08.01.2018)