Laws of Autonomous Vehicles - Twenty laws for the AV

Update:  More laws added. Thanks to Matt Farah's keen observation on Twitter yesterday, 2/7/2020, I've added law number 18. Thanks to him and Alex Roy for their insights and also incidents captured by video going viral and the general state of awareness of the limitations and benefits of AV's, I've added laws 19 and 20 as well.

Autonomous cars are robots. Large, heavy, powerful and fast robots. Initially inspired by science fiction author Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics, there are far more laws that are needed due to the nature of a vehicle and today's litigious society. Not only must occupants and pedestrians be protected, but the manufacturer must be as well. The laws are to address the concerns of protection from bodily harm, disclosing information and protecting the manufacturer.

The 20 Laws of Autonomous Cars:
1. A vehicle may not harm its occupant(s) or pedestrian(s) by intended action or inaction.
2. A vehicle may not exceed the posted speed limits, nor drive under the speed limit unless safe to do so.
3. A vehicle’s speed may not exceed the threshold braking distance to a hazard visible to the human eye.
4. A vehicle may not leave the roadway during an emergency maneuver unless clear of objects.
5. A vehicle will prioritize the safety of its occupants over animals and will utilize contact with fixed objects if necessary to avoid harming human life.
6. A vehicle may not allow an intoxicated or impaired passenger behind the wheel unless it is a declared emergency and the destination is to the nearest care center.
7. All occupants must be belted or secured, including pets. Same with heavy cargo.
8. Any detected safety related fault or failure will require manual control at all times and must be cleared before any other autonomous destinations.
9. All accidents, impacts and collisions will be verified with cameras and logged and reported.
10. A vehicle will not record license plate information and actions of other human-driven vehicles for reporting or re-transmission to law enforcement, state or company agencies or insurance companies.
11.Vehicle manufacturers cannot upload any owner information, action or location without owner consent. A vehicle may only request this information on a yearly basis.
12. One occupant must possess a valid driver’s license until full autonomy is allowed.
13. Proof of valid insurance will be required on file for any autonomous mode driving unless the vehicle company assumes liability.
14. A vehicle must yield to faster traffic regardless of the posted speed limit. If there is no adjacent lane to move into, the vehicle will pull over to a safe area and allow the faster vehicle to overtake it.
15. A vehicle in full autonomous mode must be proven to be able to safely navigate in the rain, snow, gravel and at night. Update: And be able to navigate city streets, making right turns on red and identifying potential risk such as pedestrians, bicyclists, construction zones, etc.
16. A vehicle in full autonomous mode that is damaged by a road hazard will have the manufacturer pursue the repair claim
without owner or occupant involvement
17. An autonomous vehicle must be certified "Cyber-Secure” by an accredited third party testing agency using the methods and techniques in the applied standard. Any damage, injury, or death that occurs in full autonomous mode is the financial responsibility of the manufacturer.
18. An AV without a steering wheel may not refuse a destination unless it is restricted by law enforcement, emergencies workers or federal authority.
19. A steering wheel equipped AV must monitor driver body position and face/eye position.
20. An AV will attempt to briefly notify or signal another human-driven vehicle of a vehicle defect or fault such has brake lights being inoperative or the vehicle being unlit at night.

Reasoning for the 18 Laws of Autonomous Cars:
1. A vehicle may not harm its occupant(s) or pedestrian(s) by intended action or inaction: Braking and evasive maneuvers must occur to avoid humans and harmful objects. This can be as obscure as moving forward when a rear end collision is detected to lower the speed of impact.

2. A vehicle may not exceed the posted speed limit, nor drive under the speed limit unless unsafe to do so: Despite archaic postedvhighway speeds, the blame and potential liability must be avoided by the manufacturers. This holds true in residential zones as well. The plus side is the push for updated speed limits by commuters will be widespread.

3. Vehicle speed may not exceed the threshold braking distance to a hazard: From an accident, to a tree, a rockslide, etc. the vehicle must detect or be informed of the hazard and brake at a distance that will allow collision avoidance. While the vehicle will know the tire temperatures and inflation levels due sensors that it must have, does it know the condition of the tires, age, tread depth and even the
type of compound. All-season tires are an obvious choice, but speed will be reduced in inclement weather. What if the owner prefers a less expensive, longer treadlife and hence harder compound that has an emergency braking distance ten or even thirty or more feet further than a summer compound performance tire? Or the owner has tires offering more grip and shorter braking distances but are miserable in the snow?

4. A vehicle may not leave the roadway during an emergency maneuver unless clear of objects: The vehicle may not swerve and for example hit a tree, a parked vehicle or go down an embankment potentially injuring its occupants to avoid an accident.

5. A vehicle will prioritize the safety of its occupants over animals and will utilize contact with fixed objects if necessary to avoid harming human life: Seemingly conflicting with law number four, if necessary a vehicle will use friction such as scraping against a wall to reduce speed if the rate of deceleration isn’t sufficient. Animals below a predetermined size and weight will not be prioritized over potential harm to occupants.

6. A vehicle may not allow an intoxicated or impaired passenger behind the wheel unless it is a declared emergency and the destination is to the nearest care center and only in full autonomous mode: The manufacturer will not risk liability of an impaired person driving and will only allow an impaired person to sit in that location if the vehicle is in full autonomous mode and the situation is an emergency. This implies and requires the vehicle to have the ability to detect impairment of the occupant in the driver’s seat and also have a “911 mode” that has an emergency care center as the only destination and will notify authorities of an emergency. Note that prevents abuse of the
use of a privately owned vehicle and eliminates the liability a manufacturer may incur.

7. All occupants must be belted, including pets. During full autonomous mode, a manufacturer will not risk liability due to a pet such as a dog or cat injuring a human occupant during a collision. An animal must be harnessed or in a carrier/cage the carrier/cage must be
secured.

8. Any detected safety related fault or failure will require manual control at all times and must be cleared before any other autonomous destinations. The liability of the manufacturer ignoring a safety warning is too great.

9. All accidents, impacts and collisions will be verified with cameras and logged and reported. This is only for accidents the said vehicle is involved in. Again, avoiding liability for the manufacturer. If the vehicle systems witness an accident, the owner of the witnessing vehicle must provide permission to allow the recording to be released. And can only be forced to do so by court order unless the ownership and registration is to the manufacturer or fleet agency.

10. A vehicle will not record license plate information and actions of other human-driven vehicles for reporting or re-transmission to law enforcement, state or company agencies or insurance companies. Only a felonious act or an accident with injury per law number 9 above qualifies.
Random or constant recording is not allowed unless the vehicle is for law enforcement use only and used full-time by law enforcement personnel.

11. Vehicle manufacturers cannot upload any owner information, action or location without owner consent. A vehicle may only request this information on a yearly basis. Profiling, tracking, driving habits, conversations, images, etc. are all prohibited from being transmitted,
just like a smart phone.

12. One occupant must possess a valid driver’s license until full autonomy is allowed where the vehicle is operating, whether by state or by road type, location, etc. Full autonomy implies no occupant behind the wheel or the occupant in the driver’s seat is distracted, impaired, handicapped, underage, etc.

13. Proof of valid insurance will be required on file for any autonomous mode driving unless the vehicle company assumes liability. This will have to be verifiable with the manufacturer by records cross matching, a coded drivers license or card, biometrics, etc.

14. A vehicle must yield to faster traffic regardless of the posted speed limit. If there is no adjacent lane to move into, the vehicle will pull over to a safe area and allow the faster vehicle to overtake it. An autonomous vehicle will not brake check, prevent a faster vehicle from overtaking and will move over wherever safe to allow a vehicle following closely to proceed. This will be a great advantage to faster human drivers, and per law number 10, without consequences to the faster vehicle.

15. A vehicle in full autonomous mode must be proven to be able to safely navigate in the rain, snow, gravel and at night. Update: And city streets, right turns on red and more.  If any fault or unacceptable level of vision by the sensors, the vehicle will pull over when safe and only proceed if driven by a human.

16. A vehicle in full autonomous mode that is damaged by a road hazard will have the manufacturer pursue the repair claim without owner or occupant involvement. An owner will not be held responsible nor will their insurance company. Simple claims of, “I wouldn’t drive that fast.”, “That wasn’t the route I would take.” And, “I wouldn’t choose that lane.” Automatically remove fault from the non-driving occupant/owner.

17. An autonomous vehicle must be certified "Cyber-Secure” by an accredited third party testing agency using the methods and techniques in the applied standard  Any damage, injury, or death that occurs in full autonomous mode is the financial responsibility of the manufacturer. A disclosed flat-rate settlement per type of injury and death will eventually take hold much like disability insurance. And people will try to go after the manufacturers for large payouts.

18. An AV may not decide on a destination or refuse a destination in conflict with the occupant request. However this opens the Pandora's Box to monitoring. What if one passenger declares a medical emergency and another passenger says its not? It must defer to the medical emergency and notify authorities. What if transport to the nearest facility takes longer than a local ambulance to arrive? Will the network decide which option is faster, and how? What if the AV hears an intent to do harm to another upon arrival. Interior cameras are clearly needed, again.

19. A steering wheel equipped AV and any vehicle with active cruise and steering wheel control must monitor body position so the occupant is properly positioned to be safe in an accident or emergency maneuver. When the occupant-now-driver chooses to take control, face/eye position monitoring must be active. Despite some current systems not monitoring the driver's face/head position and/or eye position, this must be implemented to prevent easy and likely frequent abuse, whether known to be abusing or not. 

20. An AV will attempt to briefly notify or signal another human-driven vehicle of a vehicle defect or fault such has brake lights being inoperative or the vehicle being unlit at night. Falling under social responsibility, some indication such as flashing the lights should be performed, or very likely digital signage incorporated into the exterior of the vehicle. An unlit human driven vehicle traveling at night  will be reported to the authorities.

The AV brings up many questions. If a safety issue of another vehicle is observed, should it be ignored?

Autonomous cars are expected to relieve congestion with ride sharing. What if the occupants before you leave a mess? Do you want your child in a car seat that has been shared? Will they be cleaned before each pick-up? Will occupants have ratings based on conduct, which means monitoring, like current human driven rideshare vehicles? If a crime is committed inside the vehicle, will it be reported?

While the autonomous car will alleviate some congestion, enable greater productivity, and allow more mobility for all ages, there are serious considerations that must enacted into law for the purposes of safety, privacy and liability.