Autonomous Vehicles in Smart Roads: an integrated management System for Road Circulation

The current liability regulation in the case of damages related to vehicle circulation is focused on the culpable behaviour of the driver and the legal status of the vehicle’s owner. While in the case of automatic vehicles, which operate under monitoring of a «supervisor» on board, it is possible to apply the general liability paradigm, autonomous vehicles will be completely different as they do not have a driver/supervisor on board, requested to be ready to intervene at all times. For this reason, the adequacy of the current liability paradigm in governing these new phenomena is questioned. Learning lessons from highly technological transport systems (such as maritime and air transport) preventive measures aimed to maintain the risk of the overall system at an acceptable level include a safety oversight structure, as well as the implementation of traffic monitoring and management systems that assume a pivotal role with respect to safety, efficiency and environmental results. In view of the implementation of AV on public roads, full traffic situation awareness is probably the best solution to create safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly road traffic