Veronika Žolnerčíková
Veronika Žolnerčíková is an expert in ICT law, a researcher at the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences and specialist at the C4E Center of Masaryk University. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Law and Technology, Faculty of Law, Masaryk University. Her research topic is the legal aspects of artificial intelligence. She also worked with the law of new technologies in her previous practice at the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Justice. She has experience with software law mainly from legal practice. She teaches software law at Masaryk University and the Technical University in Brno.
Title
Autonomous vehicles, standardization & cybersecurity
Abstract
Alongside the regulatory discourse on making autonomous vehicles conform to the law, there is a discussion on technical standards and their role in the process. Technical standards contain a product description from a technical perspective, its construction, materials, and other criteria. Whereas international organizations as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and within the European Commission discuss the legislative proposals, other organizations discuss the necessity to widen the portfolio of technical standards to be applied to AI. These include the International Standardization Organization as well as the three standardization organizations of the European Union. Standardization and compliance testing will play a significant role in autonomous mobility. The sector of road mobility already relies greatly on standardization and homologation of vehicles - an approval process necessary to allow the vehicle on the road. A procedure of testing that a particular product meets the criteria set by a relevant standard enables the developers and manufacturers to assess the conformity of the product before it reaches the market, absolving them from some legal obligations arising from the undesired behavior of the product.
An exciting aspect concerning autonomous vehicles is how to set the requirements for cybersecurity. The Cybersecurity Act adopted by the EU (Regulation 2019/881) allows certifying products, services, and processes. This framework changes the approach to certification in the EU and can also be applied to autonomous vehicles. How, why, and what changes it may bring is the topic of this talk.