Autonomous Vehicle Standards under the TBT Agreement: Disrupting the Boundaries?

Abstract

Products that incorporate AI will require the development of a range of new standards. This chapter uses the case of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) standards as a window to explore how this “disruptive innovation” may alter the boundaries of international trade agreements. Amid the transition to a driverless future, the transformative nature of disruptive innovation renders the interpretation and application of trade rules challenging. This chapter offers a critical assessment of the two systematic issues – the goods/services boundaries, and the public/private sector boundaries. Looking to the future, regulations governing CAVs will become increasingly complex, as the level of systemic automation evolves into levels 3-5. The author argues that disruptive technologies have a greater fundamental and structural impact on the existing trade disciplines.

Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI), connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), driving automation systems, standards, disruptive innovation, technical barriers to trade, (re)classification, co-governance