A growing trend towards autonomous vehicles is emerging in the automotive industry. However, the full scale deployment of SAE level 5 (completely autonomous) vehicles on roads, legally speaking, is currently not possible due to the limitations set out by the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, to which 75 countries, including the Czech Republic, are parties. The Vienna Convention specifically requires the driver to be able to control his vehicle at all times so as to be able to exercise due and proper care, and at all times to be in a position to perform all manoeuvres required of him.

When comparing the progress in autonomous driving technology with the development of the legislation governing such technology, it is apparent that the legislation will soon have to adopt many changes in order to catch up.

In our article we focus on the state of the legislation on personal data processing, as the Czech Data Protection Agency has in the past released opinions with respect to video recording systems, unmanned aircrafts and dashboard cameras that are used for the processing of personal data by autonomous vehicles.

However, changes can be expected even in this field of law as the date of the General Data Protection Regulation's introduction is rapidly approaching, and talks of requiring ‘black-boxes’ and other gadgets which process personal data inside autonomous vehicles for safety and investigation reasons are surfacing.

Source: Bird&Bird

Meanwhile, BMW has announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of euros in two of the most promising future directions for automobile development: self driving cars and electric cars. The possible Czech test centre would be part of that, Radio Praha wrote. Locations in the Ústí and Karlovy Vary regions, two of the regions with the highest unemployment rates and lowest wages in the country, are said to be tipped to get the new BMW centre. The government this month launched a multiannual programme to revive those two regions, along with the Moravia-Silesia region in the far east of the country, with one of the main aims to redirect them away from tradition industries which are already shedding jobs. Read the article. 

Read also Elon Musk: regulate AI to combat 'existential threat' before it's too late by The Guardian.