On Making Autonomous Vehicles Respect Traffic Law: a Case Study for Dutch Law

Abstract

Among the problems that still need to be solved before autonomous vehicles can fully autonomously participate in traffic is the one of making them respect the traffic laws. This paper discusses this problem by way of a case study of Dutch traffic law. First it is discussed to what extent Dutch traffic law exhibits features that are traditionally said to pose challenges for AI & Law models, such as exceptions, open texture and vagueness and the need for commonsense knowledge. Then three approaches to the design of law-respecting AV are evaluated in light of the challenges posed by Dutch traffic law.