Autonomous vehicles will bring challenges: NTC

The National Transport Commission (NTC) this week released two policy papers on the future regulation of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Australia. The papers consider the coverage of motor accident injury insurance for AV crashes and government access to Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) AV data.

Insurance and liability are some of the biggest stumbling blocks to the advent of autonomous vehicles not only here but worldwide.

At the Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting last week, Ministers agreed on the need for a national approach to the application of motor accident injury insurance to AVs. This reflects strong support from governments, insurers, manufacturers and other stakeholders for a consistent approach to ensure that no person is worse off if injured in an autonomous vehicle crash.

Ministers also recognised that C-ITS and AV technology will generate new data that could be used for a range of public benefits and noted the importance of safeguarding the privacy of individuals.

NTC Executive Leader, Future Technologies, Marcus Burke said that autonomous vehicles offer significant potential safety and mobility benefits. But Australians will not be able to access these benefits unless we have a legal framework in place for their safe operation.

“There is a need to provide access to compensation for injuries caused by an [autonomous] driving system, while ensuring that responsible parties remain liable. This will provide certainty to industry and the public.

“There is also potential for government access to C-ITS to improve decision-making and deliver benefits to the public, but this access needs to be balanced with sufficient privacy protections.

“These are important issues that need to be addressed to support the safe deployment of [autonomous] vehicles in Australia,” Burke said.

The NTC will take recommendations to ministers by November 2020 on all key legislative policy elements required to support a nationally-consistent approach to the commercial deployment of AVs in Australia.

For more information please see the Regulating government access to C-ITS and autonomous vehicle data and Motor accident injury insurance and autonomous vehicles pages on the NTC website.