A person subject to criminal liability for violation of transport security using artifi cial intelligence technologies

Abstract

Modern technologies used in the creation of various types of vehicles significantly change the idea of the functions of the person responsible for ensuring transport security. Artificial intelligence integrated into the vehicle control system has already greatly simplified the tasks that the driver of a car, train, aircraft and other mechanical vehicles solves.

Unmanned vehicles in the future will not need a driver at all, since it will be completely replaced by an intelligent control system. But neither domestic nor foreign manufacturers of high-tech vehicles guarantee the complete safety of the operation of the latter. On the contrary, according to available forecasts, the number of transport accidents will increase as the number of drones in operation increases. This will require determining the person held liable for a violation of transport security committed through the use of unmanned vehicles.

The object of the present study is the social relations that arise when determining a person who is subject to criminal liability for violating the rules of safe movement and operation of unmanned vehicles. The purpose of the work is to establish legally significant signs of a person who is recognized as the subject of the relevant elements of transport crimes.

The research methodology is represented by a combination of general scientific and particular scientific methods of cognition, namely: dialectical, comparative legal, formal logical, as well as survey and content analysis methods. All of the above methods were used in the study of materials and empirical data obtained in the process of preparing this work.

The  research materials represent a set of the following official, scientific, empirical and other data: 1) statistical indicators and analytical reviews of the pace of development of the digital economy; 2) a set of provisions of normative acts of international and national law that regulate public relations in the field of artificial intelligence and the possibilities of using this technology in the production of highly automated vehicles; 3) the results of criminal law research on the problem of the subject of transport crimes committed using drones; 4) data obtained in the course of surveys of heads of IT companies that are residents of the Skolkovo Innovation Center; 5) other materials related to the subject of the study.

Based on the results of the study, conclusions were formulated about the current lack of a need for a radical revision of approaches to the definition of legally significant signs of a special subject of a transport crime. Modern “unmanned” vehicles do not yet have an automated control system that would completely eliminate the need for direct or remote presence of the driver in order to control the movement process.

Therefore, the obligation to comply with the relevant rules still rests with the driver - an individual who is responsible for criminal offenses against transport safety. This conclusion is also based on criticism of the results of the latest studies, the authors of which insist on the need to extend responsibility for these socially dangerous acts both to drivers and to: 1) developers of soft ware for unmanned vehicles and elements of high-tech transport infrastructure, 2) owners of highly automated vehicles, 3) vehicles with artificial intelligence technology integrated into the control system.