COUNTERING THE SPREAD OF THE PANDEMIC OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTION COVID-19 IN MEGA CITIES WITH THE USE OF DRIVING CARS: EXPERIENCE, LEGAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS
Authors: Zemlin Alexander I. , Gots Evgeniia V. , Matveeva Maria A. , Torshin Anton A. 
Published: March 2023

The results of the spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 have demonstrated, on the one hand, the particular vulnerability of both transport workers and passengers of public transport and taxis to the risk of contracting infectious diseases, and on the other hand, the growing need to use vehicles to ensure uninterrupted transportation in order to counter the infection. supplying the population with medicines and food, providing medical care to the sick, etc. The experience of organizing work to provide such services and work in the context of preventing the spread and counteracting the coronavirus infection COVID-19 in a number of foreign countries has shown a high degree of efficiency in the use of unmanned vehicles to minimize contacts with the population of areas with a high risk of infection. As practice has shown, the effectiveness of the use of unmanned vehicles in a number of megacities in order to ensure the prevention of infection, the organization of quarantine measures, primary medical care for the infected, the delivery of food, medicines, is highly appreciated. However, the application of this kind of experience implies the need to ensure the safety of using highly automated vehicles in an urban agglomeration, which are a source of increased danger, which requires the adoption of sound political and organizational decisions, accompanied by the issuance of relevant regulatory legal acts. Thus, the theoretical relevance of the scientific study of issues related to the legal support for the use of unmanned vehicles in megacities in the context of counteracting the spread of the pandemic, as well as the practical significance of developing proposals on this basis to improve the norms of Russian legislation, is obvious.

Background. The results of the spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 have demonstrated, on the one hand, the particular vulnerability of both transport workers and passengers of public transport and taxis to the risk of contracting infectious diseases, and on the other hand, the growing need to use a significant number of vehicles to combat infection. ensuring an uninterrupted supply of medicines and food to the population, providing medical care to the sick, etc. The lack of scientific analysis of the experience of legal regulation of the organization of work to provide such services and work in the context of preventing the spread and counteracting the coronavirus infection COVID-19 in a number of foreign countries is a factor that limits the possibility of using unmanned vehicles to minimize contacts with the population of areas with a high risk of infection.

Purpose. The aim of the work is to develop, on the basis of a critical understanding of foreign experience in the use of highly automated vehicles in order to counteract the spread of epidemics and pandemics, to study regulatory and scientific sources of proposals for improving the norms of legislation, establishing the procedure and rules for the use of unmanned vehicles in a metropolis, the responsibility of the subjects of legal relations arising from this. systematic analysis of the legal framework and experience in organizing the efficient and safe use of highly automated vehicles in an urban agglomeration, which will ensure the wider use of unmanned vehicles to supply and assist the population living in areas of urban agglomerations with a high degree of infection risk.

Materials and research methods. Based on the systematic use of the tools of comparative legal and structural and functional analysis, the authors study the scientific literature, regulatory legal and individual acts on ensuring the efficient and safe use of highly automated vehicles in an urban agglomeration, recognized in accordance with Russian legislation as a source of increased danger. Also, legal norms establishing the responsibility of subjects of legal relations arising in the process of using unmanned vehicles in a metropolis are subjected to formal dogmatic analysis.

Results. Based on the results of a comprehensive study of foreign and Russian literary sources, legislative norms and law enforcement practice, the authors formulated proposals for improving legal regulation in this area. In particular, it is proposed to unambiguously fix in the Russian legislation the requirements for an automated control system, including, among other things, the requirement to ensure traffic safety without driver intervention when using the system within its normal operation environment, the requirement to have an alarm system for going beyond the standard operating environment. situations of particular importance for the use of an unmanned vehicle in a metropolitan area in areas with a high degree of infection risk. In order to overcome the gaps in the legislation, to assess the lack of an unmanned vehicle, the authors proposed the introduction of an additional qualitative criterion, which can be the “ideal driver” standard, which has received a fairly detailed development in the German doctrine. The legalization of this criterion in the Russian positive law will allow, in the absence of special technical regulation, to eliminate the problems of law enforcement in determining the lack of an unmanned vehicle associated with a narrow understanding of the “lack of goods” in the Federal Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, which implies its non-compliance with mandatory safety requirements, which will have a significant impact on the possibility of using unmanned vehicles in a metropolis in order to minimize the risks of the spread of epidemics and pandemics.

Conclusion. The proposed changes to Russian legislation will make it possible to more clearly regulate issues related to the legal and organizational support for the efficient and safe use of highly automated vehicles in an urban agglomeration, which are recognized in accordance with Russian legislation as a source of increased danger, which will have a significant positive impact on the possibility of using unmanned vehicles in urban areas. metropolis in order to minimize the risks of the spread of epidemics and pandemics.