The Ministry of Transport has determined who is to blame for accidents with unmanned vehicles

Kommersant got acquainted with the draft law on highly automated vehicles (VATS), which the Ministry of Transport finalized after public discussion. The document for the first time reveals in detail who will be held responsible for accidents with drones, which in 2025 will be allowed to drive on the roads without a person in the cabin. It is proposed to make the owner of the unmanned vehicle the main defendant, who, however, will be able to shift the blame to the manufacturer, dispatcher or dealer. The law also prohibits the registration of accidents with VATS without the traffic police, and insurers, when compensating for damage, will have the right to request information from the “black boxes” from the owners of drones.

Let us recall that since 2018, driverless cars and trucks have been tested on the roads by a number of companies (Yandex, Sberavtotech, KamAZ, Magnit) within the framework of an experimental legal regime, when a test engineer is required to be in the driver’s seat. Pilot projects have shown that VATS can reduce accident rates by 90% and freight costs by 30%. In 2021, the government decided to allow driverless cars on the roads without a person in the cabin, but this requires a separate law. As Kommersant reported, the Ministry of Transport presented the first two drafts of the law “On Highly Automated Vehicles” in 2021–2022, but then the document was sent for revision.

Last week, the ministry presented the third version of the law at a meeting of the Road Safety working group as part of the regulatory guillotine. Kommersant studied this project. It retains the general concept laid down in the first version. The law describes the conditions for allowing such cars on the road, including the mandatory presence of an “on-board event recording device” and a system that allows the car to be remotely put into a “minimal risk state” (when the autopilot is turned off and the car stops in a safe and authorized place for passengers to exit). All drones must be registered with the traffic police and undergo regular maintenance.

However, the document introduced a number of new norms and restrictions. For example, a ban is being introduced on the use of VATS on sections of roads included in the routes for transporting dangerous goods (for example, along the route of fuel trucks). Also, drones will be allowed to drive only on those roads that have a “digital twin” (plan and map of the route, data on the condition of the road, accidents, weather conditions, etc., which will be transmitted to the car in real time). For example, such a “double” already exists near the M-11 highway, and the Ministry of Transport spent 300 million rubles. for its creation.

The document also prohibits the operation of an unmanned vehicle unless it has the latest software updates installed. And after the law is passed, the government will have to establish separate “information security” rules for drones and their accounting.

But the main difference from previous versions of the bill is that the Ministry of Transport has described in detail who will be responsible for an accident caused by a drone. The main civil liability for damage caused to life, health, property of “third parties, the environment” will be borne by the owner of the VATS, unless he proves that the damage arose due to “force majeure or the intent of the victim.” It will also be possible to shift responsibility to the car manufacturer if it is proven that the damage was caused due to “the design features (flaws) of the control system or the VATS as a whole.” If the accident occurred due to “failure to implement dispatch control,” then responsibility will lie with the dispatcher (we are talking about an employee who will have to remotely monitor the condition of the car and, if necessary, turn off the autopilot). If the accident occurs due to poor maintenance, the dealer will be held liable.

It will be necessary to register an accident with a VATS only with the participation of a traffic police officer; the European protocol will be prohibited (a corresponding amendment is being made to the law on compulsory motor liability insurance). When indemnifying a loss from an accident involving a drone, the insurer will be able to request the information recorded on the “on-board device” from the owner of the VATS, and he will be required to provide it. Insurers will also have the right to recourse against the owner of the VATS if he does not update the software in the car in time. These norms were introduced into the bill at the initiative of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers, the head of the union, Evgeny Ufimtsev, told Kommersant. Work on the bill has been going on for a long time, he said, adding: “We have no fundamental comments on the text of the draft.”

Experts interviewed by Kommersant call for the document to be finalized. The bill is based on the fact that VATS move passengers and cargo while moving, but they can also perform work while parked, notes Alexander Zhmurko, deputy director for innovation at Mercator Holding. “We develop and operate special municipal equipment, and the level of automation is increasing every year. It is important to introduce additions at the stage of the basic law that would lay down examples of the use of highly automated special equipment,” he says. The expert also notes that the bill describes the rules for VATS on public roads, but there are also parks and courtyard areas. “We already have a small utility robot, which we are carefully testing today in Moscow parks,” he says. “The appearance of such equipment should also be provided for in the law.”

The executive director of the infrastructure center NTI “Avtonet” of the Moscow Polytechnic University, Alexander Karlovsky, supported the bill, but drew attention to the possible negative consequences due to the rules on the subject of responsibility for the operation of VATS. “On the one hand, responsibility is spelled out for all participants in relations arising during the operation,” he points out. “On the other hand, there is a bias – most of the responsibility for operation is assigned to the owner of the VATS. This approach will definitely scare off potential entrepreneurs who want to provide services using VATS.”

Lawyer, advocate of the Freedom of Choice movement Sergei Radko supports the approach proposed by the Ministry of Transport to assign responsibility for damage caused by an unmanned vehicle. “But we must be prepared for the consequences of the presumption of guilt of the owner. It will lead to the fact that companies will oblige car owners to undergo maintenance, for example, once a week, a month or once every 500 km, in order to guarantee the serviceability of the systems,” the expert predicts. “At the same time, the maintenance regulations will probably be strict, because the dealer will not want to bear responsibility , if for some reason the car becomes the culprit of an accident. And for violation of these rules, dealers or automakers will certainly want to provide the possibility of remotely disabling, for example, the autopilot system or even completely “deactivating” the car.”

The Ministry of Transport did not provide comments on the bill. The draft law should be supported by the Road Safety working group, whose experts, however, can send the document for revision: the vote will take place this week. After this, the project will go to the Russian government, then to the State Duma. According to the plan of the Ministry of Transport, the law should come into force on September 1, 2025.

Ivan Buranov