A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation

The introduction of automated driving systems (ADS) presents significant regulatory and operational challenges to ensure safe and responsible deployment in mixed traffic environments. Despite much academic work and efforts of practitioners, these challenges remain open, requiring a transdisciplinary...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Simeon C. Calvert, Arkady Zgonnikov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-02-01
Series:Frontiers in Future Transportation
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffutr.2025.1534157/full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1823861000347058176
author Simeon C. Calvert
Arkady Zgonnikov
author_facet Simeon C. Calvert
Arkady Zgonnikov
author_sort Simeon C. Calvert
collection DOAJ
description The introduction of automated driving systems (ADS) presents significant regulatory and operational challenges to ensure safe and responsible deployment in mixed traffic environments. Despite much academic work and efforts of practitioners, these challenges remain open, requiring a transdisciplinary integration of perspectives. This paper draws on insights from a recent transdisciplinary workshop, highlighting the key issues in ADS deployment, including misalignment between regulations and system capabilities, emerging accident types, and gaps in driver understanding and training. Current regulations struggle to keep pace with the advancing capabilities of ADS, resulting in unclear accountability frameworks and inadequate safety measures. The concept of meaningful human control was used as a basis to identify issues. Workshop participants agreed that meaningful human control has an essential role to play to address the identified issues by ensuring that humans can adequately interact with ADS and that ADS are designed in a manner that ensures safe and responsible deployment with clear fail-safes and redundancy mechanisms. The paper advocates for meaningful human control through continuous driver and vehicle assessment, dynamic safety certifications, and stronger communication between regulators and manufacturers to ensure safe and responsible design, regulation and deployment of automated vehicles. Implementing these actions will strengthen ADS regulation and help navigate the ethical and operational complexities of automated driving systems.
format Article
id doaj-art-f56bef3b40fa4179a42ba0826bdb1349
institution Kabale University
issn 2673-5210
language English
publishDate 2025-02-01
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format Article
series Frontiers in Future Transportation
spelling doaj-art-f56bef3b40fa4179a42ba0826bdb13492025-02-10T06:48:57ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Future Transportation2673-52102025-02-01610.3389/ffutr.2025.15341571534157A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulationSimeon C. Calvert0Arkady Zgonnikov1Department of Transport and Planning, Delft University of Technology, Delft, NetherlandsDepartment of Cognitive Robotics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, NetherlandsThe introduction of automated driving systems (ADS) presents significant regulatory and operational challenges to ensure safe and responsible deployment in mixed traffic environments. Despite much academic work and efforts of practitioners, these challenges remain open, requiring a transdisciplinary integration of perspectives. This paper draws on insights from a recent transdisciplinary workshop, highlighting the key issues in ADS deployment, including misalignment between regulations and system capabilities, emerging accident types, and gaps in driver understanding and training. Current regulations struggle to keep pace with the advancing capabilities of ADS, resulting in unclear accountability frameworks and inadequate safety measures. The concept of meaningful human control was used as a basis to identify issues. Workshop participants agreed that meaningful human control has an essential role to play to address the identified issues by ensuring that humans can adequately interact with ADS and that ADS are designed in a manner that ensures safe and responsible deployment with clear fail-safes and redundancy mechanisms. The paper advocates for meaningful human control through continuous driver and vehicle assessment, dynamic safety certifications, and stronger communication between regulators and manufacturers to ensure safe and responsible design, regulation and deployment of automated vehicles. Implementing these actions will strengthen ADS regulation and help navigate the ethical and operational complexities of automated driving systems.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffutr.2025.1534157/fullmeaningful human controlautomated driving systemshuman-automation interactionvehicle regulationsautomated vehicles (AV)
spellingShingle Simeon C. Calvert
Arkady Zgonnikov
A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation
Frontiers in Future Transportation
meaningful human control
automated driving systems
human-automation interaction
vehicle regulations
automated vehicles (AV)
title A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation
title_full A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation
title_fullStr A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation
title_full_unstemmed A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation
title_short A lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles: pressing issues for deployment and regulation
title_sort lack of meaningful human control for automated vehicles pressing issues for deployment and regulation
topic meaningful human control
automated driving systems
human-automation interaction
vehicle regulations
automated vehicles (AV)
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffutr.2025.1534157/full
work_keys_str_mv AT simeonccalvert alackofmeaningfulhumancontrolforautomatedvehiclespressingissuesfordeploymentandregulation
AT arkadyzgonnikov alackofmeaningfulhumancontrolforautomatedvehiclespressingissuesfordeploymentandregulation
AT simeonccalvert lackofmeaningfulhumancontrolforautomatedvehiclespressingissuesfordeploymentandregulation
AT arkadyzgonnikov lackofmeaningfulhumancontrolforautomatedvehiclespressingissuesfordeploymentandregulation