How do Japanese police deal with "autopilot"?

The implementation of the revised road traffic law is coming soon, and autopilot level 3 will finally be granted citizenship. This is the prelude to the era of autopilot.

The Police Department of the Road Traffic Law (National Public Security Council) has also asked to deal with the new technology of autopilot, but what is the Office's position against autopilot so far? In addition, how will you work in the future?

This time, let's take a look at the efforts of the police agency that supports road traffic safety.

A catalogue of reports.

■警察庁のこれまでの取り組み（～2018年度）

With regard to autopilot technology, the Police Agency believes that it is an indispensable technology for reducing traffic accidents and alleviating traffic jams, and in order to make autopilot based on the road environment practical at an early stage, various measures have been implemented from the point of view of supporting its progress. Specifically, based on the Cabinet Office-led Strategic Innovation creation Program (SIP), we will systematically promote the practical research and development of autopilot systems.

As the main achievement, this paper first enumerates the guidelines for Highway empirical experiment on Autopilot system, which was formulated and published in May 2016. On the basis of the demonstration of self-driving on the highway in Japan, we should pay attention to the contents of the matters that should be paid attention to, and make clear the objects of the demonstration of self-driving highways that can be implemented, such as special permits.

The conditions for conducting highway empirical experiments mainly include: (1) the vehicle meets the security standards of road transport vehicles; (2) the person who becomes the driver boarded the driver's seat of the experimental vehicle; (3) abiding by the relevant laws and regulations headed by the Road Traffic Law-- It can be said that, while taking into account safety, by setting a lower threshold policy, it is easy to create an environment for highway demonstration.

In June 2017, the remote autopilot system was also included in the object, in order to ensure the safety and smooth demonstration at the same time, the "benchmark for processing applications for road use permits for highway empirical experiments of remote autopilot systems" has been established.

As a review standard related to the license, there are the purpose of the experiment, implementation place, date, time, safety assurance measures, remote autopilot system and other structures, emergency measures, driving review and so on. In the driving review, in the state of the police and other experimental vehicles, it is confirmed that the whole range of the implementation site will not cause traffic accidents and be able to drive, etc., as a benchmark based on the risk of different rides of safe drivers.

In addition, an investigation and research on the phased realization of autopilot in line with the direction of technology development is being carried out in 2017. 1 what kind of auxiliary activities are allowed for the driver (behavior other than driving) 2 how to ensure that the autopilot system conforms to the specification 3 the existence mode of punishment when the autopilot system leaves the specification 4 save the driving data of the autopilot system This paper summarizes the argument of how to consider the relationship between the use of 5 and other traffic subjects. All these are reflected in the outline of the improvement of the system related to self-driving issued in April 2018.

In 2018, in the official and civilian ITS roadmap and the outline of the system related to autopilot, taking 2020 as the goal, the policy of marketization of autopilot level 3 was put forward. Therefore, a research working group on the due state of the road traffic law was set up and formally revised.

[reference] as a related report, it also refers to the summary of 7 important conditions in the highway empirical experiment of autopilot.

■道路交通法の改正

In May 2019, when it changed from the Heicheng era to Ling he, the amended road traffic bill, which included autopilot, was passed by the House of Representatives in plenary session. In the practical revision of predicting autopilot level 3, with the revision of the road transport vehicle law under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land and Transportation, the existence of autopilot = autopilot system has become the positioning content.

In the road transport vehicle law, the automatic operation device of the security reference object device is defined in an additional definition, and the road traffic law is also applicable in the form of the addition of the driver's obligation, the action state recording device of EDR (event data recorder) is also expressly stipulated.

Specifically, in addition to requiring the user to keep the records of the working status recording device in accordance with the provisions of the Cabinet order, or if the vehicle is found to be in poor maintenance, the police may require the driver of the vehicle to produce the records recorded by the working status recording device, etc. When driving through autopilot, it also includes the provisions of Article 71, articles 5-5, which prohibit the use of mobile phones, etc. if the request from the system can be immediately responded to.

It is worth mentioning that the revised Road Traffic Law will enter into force together with the revised Road Transport vehicle Law on April 1, 2020.

[reference] the revised Road Traffic Law finally kicked off! The date of autopilot and lifting of the ban can also be found in "April 1".

■自動運転の公道実証実験に係る道路使用許可基準の改訂

In September 2019, the Police Agency issued a revised version of the Road use permit Standard involved in the empirical experiment of self-driving Highway. In addition to the remote autopilot system, it defines applications that handle standard road permits as well as "special equipment vehicles" that operate manually with different structures of special equipment and normal steering wheel brakes.

In the highway empirical experiment of the remote autopilot system, the time required for communication response is fully considered, and in principle, the current speed of no more than 20 kilometers per hour as the maximum speed is included in the implementation plan. It includes the examination benchmark when a remote monitoring operator makes a number of experimental vehicles running.

■ITS無線路側機による信号情報の提供の高度化

In the second phase of SIP, with regard to the basic technologies needed to provide signal information and support the confluence of highways through ITS wireless side machines installed on the road, empirical experiments were carried out by domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers on the roads of the coastal department of Tokyo. The Police Department has also conducted research with automobile manufacturers on the methods of providing the signal information needed to achieve autopilot, and the Tokyo Linhai Department has been equipped with ITS wireless roadside machines to meet the requirements, which are preparing for empirical experiments.

■国際議論への参画

The Geneva Convention on International Road Traffic rules (Geneva Road Traffic Convention) and the Vienna Road Traffic Convention (Vienna Road Traffic Convention) also require a response to autopilot, of which the Vienna Convention adopted an amendment in 2014 stipulating that autopilot systems are acceptable if they comply with international standards.

The revision of the Geneva Convention ratified by Japan is being deferred and is currently under consideration by the United Nations working Group on Road Traffic Safety (WP1). The Police Agency also participated in such meetings and made recommendations for the establishment of international rules as soon as possible.

■自動運転レベル4導入に向けた検討

In order to realize autopilot, an investigation and discussion committee has been held since July 2019, in which, considering the practicality of autopilot level 4, the topics of traffic-related laws and regulations are discussed.

Although progress is not yet clear, it is expected that practical demonstration such as self-driving mobile services equivalent to level 4 technology will be officially launched in 2020, requiring more in-depth work, including new legal rectification.

[reference] about autopilot level 4 "explains the definition and import status of autopilot level 4 & when does the summary implementation begin? Please also refer to Autonomous driving lab.

■海外における動向は？

In terms of self-driving, many countries have carried out legal changes and deregulation to allow empirical experiments on highways, and Germany first passed an amendment to the road traffic law corresponding to level 3 in 2017. In the United States, it is basically about the separate regulations of the traffic law states, but there is a great risk of deviation in the autopilot benchmark, and certain federal government guidelines show that the bill is going forward.

Other countries, like Japan, have a strong direction of lifting the ban on autopilot in stages with the goal of 2020, which has attracted much attention with the development of international law and international standards.

As a unique measure of the police, the Dubai Police announced that it will introduce a small self-driving car "O-R3" developed by OTSAW Digital of Singapore as a self-driving police car in 2017. In addition, a "mobile unmanned police station" based on self-driving will be released at local technology events in 2018 and will be actively introduced. Sanli production Institute participated in the development of China Mobile's unmanned police station, and plans to conduct practical application-oriented empirical experiments from 2019.

In addition, the Dutch police also seem to be actively introducing, including making full use of the remote operation technology of autopilot to advance the discussion of ensuring prisoners.

In the private sector, the development of self-driving police cars is also growing. Ford in the United States is applying for a patent for self-driving vehicles to detect nearby vehicles that violate traffic laws, to connect communications to the corresponding vehicles to confirm identity or to issue subpoenas. In addition, China Love Group also released the "AIMO self-driving Police car" in 2019, which can patrol 24 hours a day and has various technologies needed for policing, such as face authentication and license plate verification.

The practical evidence of security robots is also making continuous progress, and the day when self-driving police cars and security robots take on one wing of the police business may not be far away.

[reference] for mobile unmanned police stations, please refer to "Sanli production Station in Aichi County and mobile police station in Dubai Police jointly develop the active use of autopilot technology".

■【まとめ】今後の焦点は自動運転システムの国際基準策定

Autopilot level 3 has a strong sense of reaching the second reading stage before its official debut, but it may be more difficult for the authorities headed by the Police Agency than to discuss the locally introduced level 4.

The current level 4, because the driving area and operator are limited, can be dealt with through special permits, etc., if there is a certain framework, but level 3 targets an unspecified majority of drivers and vehicles. Therefore, it is necessary to define strict uniform standards and rules.

The focus in the future is the approval standard of level 3 automatic operation device, etc. In June 2019, the Ministry of Land and Transport announced at the United Nations WP29 (Automotive benchmark Harmony World Forum) an agreement on a self-driving framework document containing international guidelines and standard-setting schedules for self-driving cars. It is decided to develop a benchmark scheme for expressway level 3 by March 2020.

Because without such a standard, self-proclaimed Class 3 vehicles with incomplete autopilot systems may be on the market. Only when this international standard is established will the third level be formally lifted.

As a police agency, in the future, Class 3 vehicles running on the road, due to factors such as failure and illegal transformation, will first seek to correctly see whether they meet the standards and strict administrative procedures.

Autopilot cannot be achieved without private-level development and the efforts of practical public institutions. I may want to catch my breath by amending the Road intersection Law, but I look forward to the Police Agency continuing to take positive measures.

[reference] as a related report, it also refers to "the performance of the national" autopilot demonstration "in 2019 & the summary of the policy in the future".