- Статьи
- Economy
- At the expense of the machine: the Cabinet of Ministers introduces a bill on unmanned vehicles to the State Duma
At the expense of the machine: the Cabinet of Ministers introduces a bill on unmanned vehicles to the State Duma
Next week, the government will submit to the State Duma a draft law regulating the operation of unmanned vehicles, Izvestia found out. In particular, it states that all robocars must be protected from hackers, as well as "black boxes" to identify the culprit of an accident, it follows from the final document. The goal of the initiative is to scale autonomous transport across the country without reducing safety requirements, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Nikitin told Izvestia. See our article about how unmanned vehicles will work in practice and when they will appear en masse on our roads.
Who will be responsible for accidents involving self-driving cars
The draft law on highly automated vehicles (HTS) was approved by the government's commission on legislative activity. The document, which is available to Izvestia, will be submitted to the State Duma next week. First, it will be considered in the relevant committees, and then submitted to the plenary session. The law is expected to enter into force on September 1, 2027.
— We have reached the stage when unmanned vehicles should move from the mode of individual experiments to widespread use. This requires uniform and understandable rules.: how such equipment is allowed on the roads, who is responsible for its safe operation, how remote support is organized, working with data and software. Our task is to enable technologies to scale across the country, but to do so without reducing security requirements," Andrei Nikitin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.
According to him, in the future, highly automated transport should become a regular part of freight and passenger transportation. It is fundamentally important that the bill does not leave an unmanned vehicle in a legal vacuum, Russian Transport Minister Dmitry Yadrov told Izvestia. It clearly distributes rights and responsibilities between the vehicle owner, the manufacturer, the developer of the automated driving system, the service center and the remote support operator.
— Depending on the level of automation, it is determined who actually controlled the movement at a particular moment. At the same time, data on the operation of the car must be continuously recorded, including to establish the circumstances of the accident. For cars of the fourth and fifth levels, it is mandatory to connect to the remote support service," said Yadrov.
So, not only the driver can now be responsible for the accident, but also the manufacturer, software developer, or remote operator. There are five levels of automation in total. In the first two, where he only helps to steer, the driver is responsible for everything. On the third level, the car drives by itself, but the person is obliged to intercept the steering wheel at a signal — if he ignored the request and got distracted, the person will remain to blame. On the fourth and fifth, the car moves completely autonomously: the person in the cabin is recognized as a simple passenger and is not responsible for the accident. The only exception is if the participant in the process intervened in the control himself before the impact or violated the operating conditions.
After an accident, the damage to the victim is compensated at the expense of the owner of the autonomous car, who must first insure himself. Then, as follows from the document, the data of the on—board registration device, the "black boxes", is analyzed. If the accident occurred due to a software failure, the amount paid can be recovered from the actual culprit - the manufacturer or developer of the system. If the reason is poor maintenance, contact the service center that updates the software. The human remote operator will also be responsible if the accident was his fault.
The profession of a remote support operator will be taught according to educational programs approved by the Ministry of Transport in conjunction with relevant departments. Educational organizations will be required to equip their classrooms with special simulators that fully simulate the operator's workplace. For all this, the bill also amends the Law on Education.
What are the requirements for manufacturers of self-driving cars?
It can be expected that a significant part of self-driving cars on the Russian market will be imported from abroad, primarily from China. According to the Autostat agency, in 2022-2026, China accounted for 77.5% of all imports of new cars to the Russian Federation.
At the same time, according to the results of eight months of 2026, every fifth new passenger car sold in Russia (18% of the market) was imported using alternative schemes. The bill introduces uniform requirements for the admission of autonomous vehicles on roads, which apply, among other things, to foreign manufacturers.
Despite all precautions, it will not be possible to completely prevent the gray import of unmanned vehicles, says Boris Belenky, Director of Development (CVO) at CarCraft Group. According to him, the difficulty of identifying the origin of the "software" and its official status will create additional loopholes for violators.
Manufacturers and other operators must also provide protection against unauthorized interference. And this applies not only to the car itself, but also to the external digital environment — road infrastructure, communication networks and information sensors that help drones navigate the highway. To protect these systems from hacking, their operators are required to integrate with GosSOPKA, the state system for detecting and eliminating computer attacks that monitors and reflects hacker threats in real time.
How will unmanned taxis and public transport work?
The bill applies to personal and public transport, including cars and trucks, taxis, buses and trams. In particular, he is making important changes to the taxi law, creating a legal framework for the mass appearance of unmanned taxis in Russia. The operator also monitors the progress of the trip. At the same time, a taxi will be able to legally refuse a passenger a trip or interrupt the route if there is no appropriate digital environment for its operation along the way or if the passenger's behavior poses a threat to the functioning of the driving system.
The bill also allows for the release of unmanned buses, trolleybuses and trams on regular routes. The Ministry of Transport will develop specific rules for launching such lines. They can operate both fully autonomously and with safety drivers. So far, such technologies in Russia have been tested in experimental legal regimes.
Earlier, Yandex unmanned taxis began carrying ordinary passengers in Innopolis in Tatarstan, Yasenevo in Moscow and in the federal territory of Sirius. In Moscow, an autonomous tram "Lion Cub-Moscow" was also launched on the route to Strogino. From April 2022 to November 2024, such taxis made more than 92 thousand trips. As a result, only 36 accidents occurred, however, as emphasized in the cabinet, only two occurred due to drones, the rest were the fault of "another participant."
Since June 2023, autonomous trucks have been carrying commercial goods along the M-11 Neva highway, later the Central Ring Road, M-12 Vostok and M-4 Don joined the project. This is happening within the framework of the Experimental legal regime (EPR). But after the entry into force of a separate law on unmanned vehicles, experimental zones will no longer be needed, since unmanned vehicles will be allowed to move along all roads of the Russian Federation.
Industry analysts had previously predicted that the transition to such machines would be gradual — first they would be implemented in "predictable and isolated environments" such as warehouses and logistics centers, then extended to mainline logistics, and then to urban transport and mass transportation. After the adoption of the law, it will be necessary to develop several dozen by-laws and technical regulations, Polina Davydova, director of the Digital Transport and Logistics Association, explained to Izvestia.
According to the forecast of the manufacturers of WATS and the Ministry of Transport, by 2035, unmanned trucks may account for about 19% of the cargo turnover of motor transport, and by 2050 the share of autonomous vehicles in the entire fleet may reach 50%.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
