All cars with an autopilot function would now be manufactured in Germany would be required to be equipped with black boxes. According to a news report published by news agency Reuters citing sources in the transport ministry of the country, this new requirement would be made mandatory through a new legislation, is being planned to pinpoint responsibility in the event of an accident of an auto pilot car.

The pressure on industry executives and regulators to ensure that automated driving technology can be deployed safely has been significantly increased by the fatal crash of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S car in its Autopilot mode recently.

Questions like “Did the vehicle prompt the driver for input?” and “Was the driver paying attention?” have been cropping up in the minds of the investigators probing the probable cause of such accidents and trying to pinpoint the fault behind the accidents.

Drivers must always remain seated at the wheel so they can intervene in the event of an emergency in a car with an autopilot function even though drivers will not have to pay attention to traffic or concentrate on steering. This is the new norms for such high tech cars according to the latest proposal from the Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt of Germany.

The proposed new regulation by the transport ministry is aimed to record data about when the autopilot system was active, when the driver drove and when the system requested that the driver take over in the black box which all manufacturers of cars with autopilot function would have to install.

Since according to car makers and experts, in a world where people would rather play Pokemon GO than pay attention to the road, car accidents involving autopilot aren’t always the vehicle’s fault and this makes collection of such data important.

Reuters citied a transport ministry spokesman saying that the draft is due to be sent to other ministries for approval this summer.

The German government wants the industry to become a global player in the market for self-driving vehicles and to take advantage of the fact that it is the home to some of the world’s largest car companies including Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW.

Ideally with a pres set time table, the German auto industry should draw up a wish list for Berlin to help develop self-driving vehicles, Chancellor Angela Merkel had said in April.

Even though self-driving cars are not expected to be available for the mass market before 2020, companies around the globe are working on prototypes for self-driving vehicles.

In the U.S., regulators have been toying with such an idea.  Talks about equipping vehicles with Event Data Recorders, or EDRs, that serve the same purpose as “black boxes” and which are meant to help investigators understand the cause of automobile accidents, has been going on for a while. And even though it never happened, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed making these “black boxes” mandatory in passenger cars in December of 2012.

(Adapted from Reuters &CNBC)

Categories: Creativity, Regulations & Legal