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Direction of revision of the Road Traffic Act according to the operation of self-driving cars in the current level 3 part - Refer to Japan's revised Road Traffic Act and Road Transport Vehicle Act in 2019 -

  • Legal Theory & Practice Review
  • Abbr : LTPR
  • 2022, 10(1), pp.151-178
  • Publisher : The Korea Society for Legal Theory and Practice Inc.
  • Research Area : Social Science > Law
  • Received : February 8, 2022
  • Accepted : February 23, 2022
  • Published : February 28, 2022

Hong, Tae-Seok 1

1원광대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Human transportation has entered a new phase with the advent of autonomous vehicles. While changes in driving means are expected due to the development and dissemination of autonomous vehicles, it is expected that level 3 autonomous vehicles will also cause traffic accidents due to overconfidence in the driver's system, etc. in light of accident cases of Level 2 vehicles abroad. do. Therefore, how to prevent such accidents, and on the other hand, what content should be regulated in the special law related to automobiles has been reviewed. There have been some revisions to our Road Traffic Act, and the revised law is scheduled to take effect on April 20, 2022. However, the revised Road Traffic Act did not actively respond to the operation of autonomous vehicles in the current level 3 stage. On the other hand, Japan has revised the relevant special law in 2019 and is actively responding to the operation of autonomous vehicles. Accordingly, the amended Japanese automobile-related special law was reviewed, and the implications for us were reviewed. What we need to review in the future through the reviewed special law in Japan were ① the concept and imposition of obligations on the driver, and ② clarification of the conditions for autonomous driving. First, in relation to the concept of a driver, our Road Traffic Act states, “It refers to the use of horses or streetcars according to their original usage.” In fact, we are not preparing for the era of autonomous vehicles. Accordingly, as in the case of Japan, it is necessary to consider the case of using an autonomous driving system as “including the case of using an automatic driving device” as driving. This is because, if it is included in the concept of driving, it is possible to impose a duty of care, which can be a basis for taking responsibility in case of an accident. The next step is to clarify the conditions for autonomous driving. Our regulation is “In response to the demand for direct driving of the autonomous driving system without delay… ”, it seems to mean that you have to drive yourself if the autonomous driving system requires it. In fact, this regulation means that the driver must intervene directly when the system requires it, so the timing of the driver's intervention is vague. Therefore, as in the case of Japan, it seems that the system should be operated so that the time when the autonomous driving mode can be directly intervened (or the time when the autonomous driving mode cannot be used) can be legally determined and operated. As such, by clarifying the timing of driver intervention (or clarification of autonomous driving conditions), it is thought that it will be very helpful in determining the scope of responsibility in case of an accident. As mentioned above, this paper has significance in reviewing the direction of the revision of the special law in Japan through the 2019 revision of the special law in Japan.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.