摘要: |
Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS) are a diffuse collection of automotive, communications, controls, traffic management, and systems technologies that hold the potential to improve highway safety, reduce traffic congestion, and improve the efficiency of highway transport in the United States. Numerous public and private organizations are working to develop and deploy IVHS technologies, prompted in part by the mandates and funding contained in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, Public Law 102-240, 105 Stat. 1914, 3 U.S. Code & Admin. News 1526. The way Americans drive is an integral part of most aspects of our daily life. Any technology that changes the way we drive will inevitably have to confront the manifold legal and institutional arrangements that have grown up around current patterns of vehicle and highway use. To be successful, an IVHS technology will not only have to be desirable from the perspective of the driver, public sector, and manufacturer. It will also have to be legally feasible to implement. This study addresses the legal feasibility of IVHS -- the constraints posed for IVHS technologies by American law, legal institutions, and lawyers. From the outset of work on IVHS, perceived legal problems with the technology have been the basis for concern by all the actors involved. Now that IVHS research, development, and deployment has progressed for several years, it is possible to identify the legal constraints that have already materialized. |