1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

In the specific case, many of the technologies that will result in the completely autonomous car are already common in the circulating fleet, as we will see later on. In summary, there will be a progressive use of autonomous technologies in traffic. In this sense, it is important to seek now, and discuss, some of the implications that this autonomy will bring. Our objective in this article, therefore, is to conjecture some consequences of these technologies, in terms of traffic, the urban environment, the economy, as well as legal relations, from the point of view of traffic, civil and penal laws. Before that, however, we must present some of the technical aspects involved in these vehicles, in order to support the discussions raised here. Of course, as it is a technology that is still in full development, it is not our goal neither to exhaust the countless facets of the subject, nor to offer definitive answers to the questions we will seek to raise. In fact, if we manage to offer a frame of reference for the debate, we believe that our contribution will have already been met. 2. Autonomous Cars According to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2016): United States government agency that is responsible, among other duties, for establishing minimum safety standards that vehicles in that country must meet), autonomous vehicles (“self-driving vehicles”) are those whose operation does not require the direct participation of the driver to control steering, acceleration and braking, and does not require their participation for constant monitoring of the conditions of the road. Still, according to this agency (NHTSA, 2020), the levels of automation can be classified from 0 to 4 (electronic vehicle stability control: the system takes control of the brakes and, depending on the manufacturer, the direction and acceleration to prevent loss of control of the vehicle): a. Without automation (Level 0): the driver, all time, is in complete control of the vehicle’s basic functions, such as brakes, steering and acceleration; b. Automation of specific functions (Level 1): involves the automation of one or more basic vehicle functions, such as ESP (Electronic vehicle stability control: the system takes control of the brakes and, depending on the manufacturer, the direction and acceleration to prevent loss of control of the vehicle) or BAS / EBA (Emergency braking aid system: applies maximum vehicle braking in situations that the system deems necessary). c. Automation of combined functions (Level 2): involves the automation of at least two basic functions of the vehicle, which must operate in a coordinated manner, in order to allow the driver to be exempt from controlling them. This is the case of adaptive cruise control (ACC) (System that allows the vehicle to maintain a safe distance from the vehicles in front of it. If vehicles ahead reduce the speed, the system also reduces its own to maintain the safe distance. If the vehicles ahead accelerate, the system increases the speed up to a limit determined by the driver) combined with vehicle maintenance systems within the circulation range (There are several acronyms for this system, such as LCA or LKS. Its operation is based on a camera that detects the center of the

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