A traffic accident in Tallinn caused by a remotely controlled taxi has raised questions about who is responsible if no one is behind the wheel, ERR News reports.
On the 23rd of July, a remotely controlled taxi from the company Bliq collided with another vehicle at an intersection in Tallinn. No one was injured in the accident.
A 24-year-old man was in the taxi, but he was not driving – the Hyundai was being driven remotely from about 15 kilometers away.
Autonomous taxi services have been available in Tallinn for almost a year, and there are currently fewer than ten of them. Fully autonomous cars – that is, those where the driver is not involved even remotely – are banned in Estonia. The Transport Board currently requires that Bliq cars always have a driver. The law states that the operator who remotely controls the car bears the same responsibility as any other driver, and this also applies to the accident that occurred in July.
Janno Tobi, head of the patrol unit of the Western Harju Police Department, said that the remotely controlled car approached the intersection when the traffic light turned red.
The vehicle stopped at a pedestrian crossing, and for some reason the operator decided to continue on his way.
The car in the other lanes saw what was happening and gave way, but the vehicle, which was moving in the bus lane, did not see the taxi because it was blocked by other cars, and a collision occurred at the intersection.
Claude Kaasik, head of the motor vehicle insurance department at insurer PZU, explained that the operator who remotely controlled the car should be held responsible for the accident – even if the car is controlled remotely, the operator is still the driver of the vehicle, and therefore guilty of causing the accident.
Bliq stated in a written response that the vehicle’s technology and systems functioned correctly, and the accident was caused by human error.
According to the Transport Administration and lawyers, the Traffic Law is flexible enough to allow remotely controlled vehicles to be on the roads, and no separate amendments to the law are needed.
From a legal point of view, everything is in order, but society may not be ready to fully trust the technology. Tobi said that drivers are currently not learning how to deal with autonomous vehicles in traffic.
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