On 1 February 2012 the iMobility Forum opened the first meeting of the newly created Legal Issues Working Group in Brussels. This latest WG will enrich the list of activities of the Forum.
During the meeting held in the FIA premises 12 participants set up objectives for the WG which include: investigating legal and liability issues related to safe smart and clean mobility and new technologies; establishing recommendations for facilitating the market introduction of safe smart and clean systems privacy issues product and service liability issues; analysing the possible implications on competition law; investigating and promoting best practices; and sharing the outcome of EC Research Programmes.
Those aspects are critical for the deployment of ITS services and application both for increasing the users’ acceptance and for creating a stable framework for the industry. Just to mention some examples: who is liable for a vehicle accidents resulting from the malfunction of an ITS application/service that informs and warns the driver? Who should have access to the data captured when a consumer agrees to equip his/her vehicle with an event data recorder to reduce for example the cost of insurance (pay-as-you-drive)? Again to which extent can a supplier develop an innovative braking technology if the legal framework is not stable? Or in which conditions is it possible the reuse of public data in commercial maps?
Liability regime and data protection concern are ones of the most significant barriers for wide market penetration of ITS services and the working group is actively supporting the development of European Policy framework and contributing to the ITS Action Plan.
Claudia May (ADAC) and Luca Pascotto (FIA) are co-chairing the WG. “The first phase of the WG aims to identify the legal problems when introducing and using ITS and to provide input into the EU ITS policy. In the second phase the WG will look at prioritising the legal problems taking into account the recommendations from the dedicated EC studies in this field and developing potential recommendations” Claudia May (ADAC). The transport sector is facing an increase of the complexity of the chain (suppliers; manufactures; operators; users) which requires greater cooperation. As Luca Pascotto (FIA) stated “the challenge of the connected vehicle poses open questions regarding which services will be valued by consumers and which will be rejected: we need to remove and clarify some key legal aspects in order to improve cooperation to the benefit of users and industry”.
The next Legal Issues Working Group will take place on 10 July in Brussels and will be followed by other two meetings in September and November.
For more information please contact Claudia May and Luca Pascotto or visit the iMobility Forum webpage.
Link to original Article
http://www.ertico.com/the-imobility-forum-launches-the-legal-issues-working-group/
Original Publication Date: Wed 13 Jun 2012
