Abstract

The continuous collection of road information by autonomous vehicles (AVs) has intensified regulatory pressure on data security protection. At present, the Chinese government adopts a proactive stance on protecting AV data security. Nevertheless, relevant requirements are scattered across various regulatory regimes, including data security, cybersecurity, personal information protection and AV access regulation. It has given rise to ambiguous judgement criteria and inconsistent law enforcement practices among local authorities. As a leading developed economy worldwide, the European Union has continuously refined legislation on data security protection for AVs since 2018, establishing a globally sophisticated protective framework. Against this backdrop, this paper adopts comparative analysis and normative analysis to focus on examining the characteristics of the EU’s advanced rules. The research reveals that the EU has integrated risk prevention, monitoring and reporting mechanisms into a unified regulatory framework. It implements market access and safety assessment before operation, conducts ongoing safety management during operation, and launches data reporting and recall procedures after operation. After evaluating the applicability of the EU model in China, this paper suggests China adopt phased AV data security rules. Governance should focus on early detection of data breach risks before operation, real-time data monitoring during operation, and data reporting after operation. This proposal clarifies responsibilities among regulators, automakers and data service providers, improves the predictability and enforceability of relevant governance and facilitates safe, innovative and sound development of the autonomous driving industry.

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