Autonomous Driving – Overview of the Current Legal Framework

The topic of driving a car has typically focused on a person driving. The driver of a vehicle was and – to a large extent still is – required to possess the power to control all of the car’s functions. Recent technological and legal developments in the field of autonomous driving, however, demonstrate that the driver-centered principle in road traffic is beginning to lose relevance and in the future may become the exception or eventually disappear entirely. About the author: Dr. Hannah Dittmers studied law in Freiburg, Germany and Fribourg, Switzerland with a focus on private international law and European law. She obtained her LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2017 and her Ph.D. (Dr. jur.) from the University of Freiburg in 2019. She is currently a legal trainee (Rechtsreferendarin) at the Regional Court Freiburg.