Daimler Organizes Symposium on "Autonomous Driving, Law and Ethics"

FRANKFURT AM MAIN -- Sept. 23, 2015: Before autonomous driving becomes reality, there is a wide range of legal and ethical questions to be answered. To support social discourse and communicate with experts, Daimler is hosting a symposium on "Autonomous Driving, Law and Ethics". More than 100 experts from business, science, politics and the media discuss the new challenges on September 23.

The symposium is opened by Dr. Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Integrity and Legal Affairs. She is convinced that autonomous driving will be a fixture of future mobility, thanks to its many advantages: greater convenience, less stress, lower consumption and the potential for higher road safety. However, not only the technical requirements but also the legal and ethical questions must be clarified. "The safety of every road user is our top priority for automated driving as well. Just as important as technical developments is that our customers have legal certainty and security when it comes to ethical and data protection matters. This is why we promote the dialog on these issues."

In his keynote address on technology ethics, Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin, Professor of Philosophy at LMU Munich and former State Minister for Culture, also examines the risks of new technologies: "Who is responsible for autonomous driving – the driver, the vehicle owner, or the manufacturer? Since robots cannot act like humans or be treated like them, we must clarify how to assign our criteria from criminal law, civil law and common morals to the new technologies." Julian Nida-Rümelin leads research projects in the field of technology ethics and is a member of the Advisory Board for Integrity and Corporate Responsibility at Daimler AG.

Automation not only makes driving cars more convenient, but also has the potential for lower emissions and greater safety. It reduces stress on drivers during monotonous trips in traffic jams or on the highway. At the same time, they would still be able to take the wheel for routes that are more fun to drive. The topics discussed at the symposium include liability, data protection and ethical questions related to unexpected traffic situations.

Data protection already plays a key role from the development stage of connected and automated systems, as explained by representatives of Research & Development and Corporate Data Protection from Daimler during the afternoon session. Data protection experts, legal experts and engineers coordinate their efforts at an early development stage to work on user-friendly solutions ("Privacy by Design"). At the end of the event, representatives from the Bundestag, the European Parliament and the European Commission speak with the symposium's participants on new challenges to politics.

Back in 2013, Daimler was the first automaker to show that autonomous driving works for long-distance and city traffic when it took the S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE from Mannheim to Pforzheim. In Nevada in May 2015, Daimler Trucks presented the Freightliner Inspiration Truck, the first automated truck officially licensed to operate on the roads.

The symposium in Frankfurt is one of numerous activities that Daimler has launched in 2015 to promote dialog on the legal and ethical questions surrounding autonomous driving. A cross-divisional Steering Committee led by Dr. Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt and Prof. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Group Research & Development Mercedes-Benz Cars, is in charge of this topic at the company. The committee receives important input from the Advisory Board for Integrity and Corporate Responsibility, an external body that has been providing Daimler with critical and constructive support since 2012.

Daimler also supports interdisciplinary research to put the issue on a scientific footing and use the results to advance the debate within society. The Daimler and Benz Foundation has invested around 1.5 million euros in the “Villa Ladenburg” research project since 2012 for this purpose. For two years, it supported a team of more than 20 scientists who examined the social effects of autonomous driving in depth. On May 5, 2015 the researchers published their white book, which is available for discourse in business, politics and research.

The open questions related to the new technologies will also be examined at Daimler's 2015 Sustainability Dialogue. This event will be held in Stuttgart on November 11 and 12.  Each year, it brings together around 100 stakeholders with Daimler experts in order to discuss the latest issues relating to sustainability.