Protection of personal data in autonomous vehicles and its data categorization

In the last ten years, autonomous vehicles have proved to be one of the major themes for smart mobility and a vision for the future. The possibilities of autonomous vehicle control are gradually being discussed, as we move from driving assistance systems through occasional vehicle control to fully automated driving without driver intervention.Currently developed autonomous systems work on the principle of recording and processing of a large amount of information from sensors and taken from other entities. Such recorded data may be of a technical nature, but may also be categorized as personal data. If personal data is handled improperly, there is a potential threat of misuse, resulting in a breach of the digital privacy of individuals and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) valid in the European Union. Sensitive and systematic handling of personal data is crucial not only for reasons of GDPR regulations but also for conformity of users of autonomous vehicles and thus the trouble-free development of autonomous vehicles and use in the future.The aim of the presented article is to outline the functioning and use of data in autonomous systems and their basic elements. The next part focuses on the processing of data from autonomous vehicles, their categorization and evaluation in terms of potential severity for security misuse. The article contains an analysis and description of individual elements of autonomous systems and the development of elements of autonomous vehicles from the point of view of the application of privacy protection.The primary target is to address the issues of privacy rights from the development by the manufacturer of autonomous systems. With this target in mind, the article also comes with measures and steps that need to be taken to successfully secure the personal data of data subjects involved within these autonomous systems in general.