Automated driving and its challenges to international traffic law: which way to go?

Abstract

As more and more automated vehicles are being tested on public roads, it becomes necessary to address the challenges that this technological development poses to law. One of those challenges is the central concept of driver in international traffic laws, notably the Geneva Convention on road traffic of 1949 and the Vienna Convention on road traffic of 1968, these Conventions forming the base of many national traffic laws. In this article, it will be argued that an automated vehicle does not have a driver within the meaning of the Conventions. Four different approaches on how to revise the Conventions will be discussed. A comparison of the approaches will bring out the (dis)advantages of each approach and will lead to the recommendation of one of the approaches.