Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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609. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the current position with regard to the licensing of self-drive cars; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that any of the new sensor technology on self-drive vehicles can be applied generally to normally driven vehicles; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39525/16]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​Irish driver licensing law, which operates within a framework of EU driver licensing law, currently works on the assumption that a vehicle is under the control of a driver. Any future approach to the question of who would be responsible for an autonomous vehicle would have to be considered carefully, and I would anticipate that this would be addressed ultimately at EU level.

Around the world, industry and research groups are working on technologies which are transferring driving functions from human drivers to computer systems. While some of these new technologies are taking over certain parts of the driving function, others are intended to fully replace the human driver. Transferring more of the traditional manual driving function to automated systems may mitigate the risks associated with human error as a factor in many road traffic collisions. However, the potential impact of the deployment of autonomous vehicles raises many questions, the answers to which are multifaceted involving ethical, legal, technical and economic dimensions.

The European Commission is looking to develop a European strategy on connected and automated driving and is currently in the process of developing Regulations to support its future implementation. It is expected that the Commission's Connected Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) deployment platform will furnish EU Member States with various policy recommendations for the development of a roadmap for C-ITS and the identification of solutions for critical areas of concern in relation to such vehicles, as well as facilitating the development of a shared vision for the interoperable deployment of C-ITS.