Future Mobility: Investigating regulatory impacts of the digital and fuel revolutions on the transport industry

The transport industry is in the grip of a technological revolution that promises to make connected and autonomous vehicles a reality and to bring electric mobility to the masses. But regulators need to step in to help the industry resolve legal, technical, and ethical quandaries. A new MLex® Future Mobility service helps users navigate the shifting landscape of regulatory ambitions and commercial experimentation by the likes of car makers, software and electronics suppliers, energy businesses and service providers.

Connected vehicles
The number of “connected” cars is growing rapidly, with various estimates putting them at around 60% of sales of new cars globally in the first half of 2021—but the degree of their connectivity varies from the most basic emergency safety alerts to up to 10,000 detailed data points capable of interacting with other vehicles and road infrastructure. The list of regulatory risks is also growing longer:

• The definition of “personal data” for mobility communications is unclear.
• The auto industry continues to struggle with standard-essential patent licensing.
• Appropriate infrastructure and coverage issues abound.
• Disagreements are rife between manufacturers and parts makers over the levels of access to in-vehicle data.
• Disputes over standards for cybersecurity, safety and privacy are stacking up.

Autonomous vehicles
Despite punchy promises from Tesla boss Elon Musk, fully automated passenger cars are still some years away, each stage of evolution having been marred by bizarre safety incidents. With the expectation for technology to be “as good as, if not better than” human drivers, U.S. investigations into Tesla and other safety cases will attract increasing attention, potentially undermining the public’s trust in automation. And with civil and criminal liability questions yet to be wholly resolved—potentially through litigation—the existing models of motor insurance may need to be rewritten. As a result, most issues regarding connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will fall to regulators as they have to develop a more comprehensive rulebook. U.S. lawmakers have already proposed a Self Drive Act covering safety standards, cybersecurity and privacy designs—and laying the groundwork for a federal regulatory framework.

Electric vehicles
In the U.S., the Biden administration wants to see a 50% market share for electric vehicles by 2030, along with a national network of 500,000 charging points, up from the current 41,000. To this end, tens of billions of dollars in investment has been promised by new legislation. California and New York aim for all cars and passenger trucks to be zero-emission by 2035. Preparing for the big switch, many traditional fuel-industry giants are adjusting their models, accelerating their transition towards electric. But these processes also pose numerous regulatory questions around competition law and state aid rules as governments push for a faster switch.

To read more about the future of mobility and how the MLex Future Mobility offering can help you stay ahead of the regulatory curve, access our Special Report.

Find Future Mobility content on MLex
MLex subscribers can use new Topics tags to find Future Mobility content. In response to customer feedback, MLex introduced keyword tags, called Topics, to provide readers with more granular subject matter tagging. Tagging is visible at the footer of each article.

There are a few ways readers can use these Topics tags:

Click on a Topics tag at the bottom of an article to run a search for all content tagged with that Topic, sorted newest first. See the latest Future Mobility headlines.

You can also start with a search. Enter an asterisk (*) into the search bar and click Enter to run a search and retrieve all content. Then filter to narrow results.

Access the Topics filter on the search results page. Select your Topic(s) and click Apply to see results.

Receive a Daily Wrap-up alert for content tagged with specific Topics by creating a saved search alert. After searching and refining, click the Save Search button.

Then complete the Save Search form.

Coming Soon! You’ll find a filter for Topics available on content sets for more alerting options in the near future.

Practice groups that subscribe to MLex can access Future Mobility content today. Talk to your LexisNexis account team to learn more.

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