Australian regulators deny productivity benefits to users of self-driving cars

First published 16 November 2017

At the Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting last Friday, government ministers endorsed new National Enforcement Guidelines prepared by the National Transport Commission (NTC) to assist police to enforce road traffic laws in relation to automated vehicles.

One of our road rules is the 'proper control' rule. This rule states: "A driver must not drive a vehicle unless the driver has proper control of the vehicle." The police have historically interpreted this rule to mean that the driver must be sitting in the driver's seat with at least one hand on the steering wheel. Whilst this interpretation might have been appropriate for the vehicles of the past, it isn't appropriate for vehicles that can safely steer themselves.

The new Guidelines spell out how the police should interpret the proper control rule in relation to more highly automated vehicles, including the next generation of automated vehicle — SAE Level 3, Conditionally Automated Vehicles — where the vehicle will not only be capable of controlling the steering, acceleration and braking, but will also be capable of watching the road and responding to objects and events that present themselves, in particular driving conditions (e.g on motorway standard roads, in normal weather conditions). These vehicles will require a fallback-ready user to be receptive to requests from the automated driving system to intervene, but they will allow the user to take his or her eyes off the road for sustained periods of time.

What's not yet known, is how long a vehicle will give the user to take control following a request from the vehicle to intervene — for example, as the vehicle approaches the end of the environment which it can operate in SAE Level 3 mode (e.g the end of the motorway). This will be a matter for the manufacturer of the vehicle to determine, having regard to the capabilities of the vehicle's automated driving system. The manufacturer of the vehicle will be liable for any harm suffered by the driver, passengers and other road users if the manufacturer fails safeguard them against foreseeable risks from using the vehicle as intended. If the manufacturer suggests in its marketing materials that the fallback driver can engage in certain non-driving tasks (e.g checking their emails or Facebook page on their phone) when using the vehicle in L3 mode, the manufacturer will need to be satisfied that the vehicle will always give the user sufficient time to put down their phone, assess the driving situation and safely resume control of the vehicle, after the vehicle asks the user to take back control.

Controversially, for these L3 vehicles, the NTC has suggested that, to have proper control, the fallback-ready user should be "not reading or viewing a device or thing unrelated to navigation or driving (existing restrictions on mobile phones and visual display units continue to apply)." The NTC's guidelines also state "while not driving, the human driver must not engage in activities that prevent him or her from responding to takeover demands, are not in line with the intended use of the automated driving function or are prohibited by law." 

Whilst the latter statement provides more flexibility than the former, it appears the NTC is encouraging police to take the view that a fallback-ready user of a L3 vehicle will infringe the proper control rule if they look at their phone for purposes unrelated to navigation or driving, while the vehicle is operating in L3 mode — even if :

• the vehicle will only ever ask the user to resume control in an orderly fashion (e.g because the vehicle is nearing the end of the area/domain in which it has been designed to operate in L3 mode); and/or

• the vehicle will always give the user sufficient time to safely resume control.

It's possible the NTC is saying "no reading in L3 mode" should remain the position only while existing road rules continue to specifically restrict the use of mobile phones and visual display units — but it's hard to tell. It appears the NTC actually wants to continue to ban drivers from reading their mobile phone when the vehicle is operating in L3 mode, even if the existing restrictions on the use of mobile phones are removed for L3 and better vehicles .

For those hoping to shoot off a few emails or catch up on their Facebook friends as they travel to and from work in their L3 vehicle, this spells disaster! More importantly, Australia’s adoption of autonomous driving technologies—and the realisation of the immense productivity benefits they offer—is likely to lag behind other countries as long as our primary reform body proceeds with excessive caution.

The existing rules in regarding the use of mobile phones and visual display units should be amended so that they only apply to human drivers, when performing part of the dynamic driving task (i.e steering the vehicle, or watching the road). When an automated driving system is performing the entire dynamic driving task, the fallback-ready user should be allowed to look at their phone or perform other non-driving tasks, so long as the performance of such activities will not prevent him or her from safely responding to takeover demands.

Thanks to Con Tieu-Vinh for his assistance with this article