Data protection and self-driving cars: the consent to the processing of personal data in compliance with GDPR

Thanks to the development of autonomous and connected driving in the smart cities, mobility is evolving more and more rapidly. A significant number of possible societal benefits has been identified, including improvement of road traffic conditions, reduction of environmental pollution, development of the sharing economy, increased transport safety and the extension of mobility to people who are usually excluded (e.g. children, elderly and disabled) by transforming mobility into a genuine service (so-called mobility as a service). In the light of the European reform of the protection of personal data (Reg. 679/2016/EU, well known as GDPR), this paper will focus on the issue concerning the protection of personal data processed by autonomous vehicles and the related profiling process of the user, who daily uses such technologies often unaware of the risks.