Autonomous mobility: phenomenon of a new era

“Many sectors including transport are driven by digitisation and automation. We have already started to take concrete steps to prepare the Czech industry and citizens for a new era. We are the first country, where the state administration is considering ethical aspects of autonomous mobility. We also offer one of the best conditions for testing new technologies and promote research and development”, said the Minister of Transport Karel Havlíček.

The Ethics Committee, which gathers experts from engineering as well as humanities, published its conclusions defining transition principles for autonomous mobility, which has to be safe, gradual and responsible. It also defined benefits as well as possible risks. The Committee prepared 21 recommendations based on ethics, law, artificial intelligence and technology reflecting the current knowledge in this field. It is now important to focus on privacy issues, data collection and security, legal aspects and ethical questions concerning safety or protection of lives and health or enhancing trust in technology and getting to know it. It is also important to focus on legislation necessary for operation of autonomous vehicles.

On 1 October, the Ministry of Transport in cooperation with the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Institute of State and Law and White&Case law firm launched a project, which will elaborate proposals for legislation amendments based on previously carried out analyses to allow operation of autonomous vehicles. The project should bring results in spring 2022.

“The Ethics Committee is now focusing on other activities such as further elaboration of the recommendations. It should for example come up with guidelines in a form of basic ethical principles for state authorities or focus on the issue of a relation between autonomous vehicles and the current view on urban planning. It will also focus on ethical aspects of legislation framework, which is one of our priorities. The Czech Republic wishes to play an active role in defining ethical guidelines; there are not many European countries with similar experience. We want to build an image of the Czech Republic as a country that creates know-how, contributes to the European discussion and plays an active role”, said Václav Kobera, the director of ITS, Space Activities and Research, Development and Innovations Department at the Ministry of Transport.

The Ministry will publish on its website and social networks a test on ethical principles for operation of autonomous vehicles, which will be available for general public. Everyone will have the opportunity to test themselves how they would react in critical situations, similar to those encountered by autonomous vehicle on a daily basis, and how they feel about these technologies. Answers and comments are based on the published report from the Ethics Committee.

The Ministry of Transport established the Ethics Committee in April 2020. It primarily focuses on ethical principles, which is quite essential for development of autonomous mobility and actual use of self-driven vehicles. This issue is closely related to accepting technologies by those, who should use them, and to build trust in new technologies. Public opinion polls frequently show that various ethical dilemmas and its insufficient solutions are the main barrier for many potential users to accept autonomous driving.

The published report from the Ethics Committee contains general recommendations to microethical (e.g. regulation of autonomous vehicles behaviour) and macroethical (e.g. social impacts of operation of autonomous vehicles and equal distribution of benefits) aspects or advices in specific areas focusing on ethics, law and technology (see above). The Committee took into consideration principles of security, accessibility and credibility and defined the autonomous mobility within the current transport system.

The recommendations are designated to specific entities, such as state authorities, developers and constructors of autonomous vehicles or their users, and contains proposals for measures, which will contribute to a fair, ethically correct operation of autonomous vehicles and equal share of all benefits brought by the autonomous mobility. The aim is to promote further discussion about this topic, since development of technologies will require focusing also on other areas and adjusting the recommendations or adding new ones. 

You can find more information on autonomous mobility at autonomne.cz (only in Czech language).