Do you know that cars can process your personal data?

Undoubtedly, automation is one of the most important innovations in the field of new technology. However, in addition to the many benefits, there are a number of issues that need to be resolved and the Autonomous Vehicle Technology is the one of which is urgently needed an ad hoc framework of rules. In the light of European data protection reform as the result of Reg. 679/2016/EU, well known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it seems appropriate to focus on issues relating to the protection of personal data generated, stored and processed by autonomous vehicles and the user’s profiling process, which uses these technologies frequently unaware of the risks. Starting from a critical analysis of the state of the art the purpose of this paper are two: first of all, verify whether the current European legislation is sufficient for a complete and systematic regulation of self-driving cars, with particular regard to data protection issue, and secondly, it will be assessed whether consent to the processing of personal data is really a functional protection tool to reach the objectives set out in the GDPR or it is preferable to appeal to other protection forms.