Smart Automotive Technology Adherence to the Law: (De)Constructing Road
  Rules for Autonomous System Development, Verification and Safety
  Driving is an intuitive task that requires skills, constant alertness and
vigilance for unexpected events. The driving task also requires long
concentration spans focusing on the entire task for prolonged periods, and
sophisticated negotiation skills with other road users, including wild animals.
These requirements are particularly important when approaching intersections,
overtaking, giving way, merging, turning and while adhering to the vast body of
road rules. Modern motor vehicles now include an array of smart assistive and
autonomous driving systems capable of subsuming some, most, or in limited
cases, all of the driving task. The UK Department of Transport's response to
the Safe Use of Automated Lane Keeping System consultation proposes that these
systems are tested for compliance with relevant traffic rules. Building these
smart automotive systems requires software developers with highly technical
software engineering skills, and now a lawyer's in-depth knowledge of traffic
legislation as well. These skills are required to ensure the systems are able
to safely perform their tasks while being observant of the law. This paper
presents an approach for deconstructing the complicated legalese of traffic law
and representing its requirements and flow. The approach (de)constructs road
rules in legal terminology and specifies them in structured English logic that
is expressed as Boolean logic for automation and Lawmaps for visualisation. We
demonstrate an example using these tools leading to the construction and
validation of a Bayesian Network model. We strongly believe these tools to be
approachable by programmers and the general public, and capable of use in
developing Artificial Intelligence to underpin motor vehicle smart systems, and
in validation to ensure these systems are considerate of the law when making
decisions.
