The specific robotliikur regime: responsible actors, permitted road positions and retained records.
The following answers are ROAT paraphrases and interpretations. Check the cited source for its exact wording and temporal applicability.
What is a robotliikur?
The Act defines a ground-contact vehicle on wheels or another chassis, moving partly or fully automatically or by remote control. Sensors, cameras or other devices supply information enabling movement partly or fully without a driver's control.
A robotliikur is expressly excluded from the motor-vehicle definition in § 2(40). Under § 151²(2), carrying people or animals is prohibited. This category must therefore not automatically be applied to a passenger AV or fully automated vehicle.
Who is the user and who controls the device?
The user (kasutaja) is the natural or legal person directly possessing the robot and using it in traffic. A customer receiving a service without substantive control over maintenance, operation or admission to traffic does not thereby become the user.
Control includes human changes to speed or direction, directly or remotely. The statutory definition also includes setting a route or destination and related movement or stopping commands for travel without driver control, but only insofar as the robot acts on those commands. This is a specific legal definition; not every such instruction amounts to continuous remote driving.
What duties apply to those actors?
A natural-person user or controller must be at least 18. The user must be an Estonian citizen, a permanent-resident natural person holding the relevant Estonian residence permit or right of residence, or a legal person registered in Estonia.
The user is responsible for technical condition, safe use, identification and suitable controllers, and must be reachable by telephone during operation. The Act prohibits intoxicated or otherwise unsafe control. Both user and controller owe duties of care, caution and attention.
Where may the robot travel?
The primary space is the pavement, a footpath or the pedestrian part of a shared cycle-and-foot path, where sufficiently wide. The robot must not endanger or obstruct pedestrians and must stop and make room when necessary.
The Act permits a shoulder or carriageway edge only under specified conditions, such as in a built-up area lacking that pedestrian infrastructure or when passing a temporary obstruction. This is not general permission to travel anywhere on the carriageway. Yellow flashing lights are required on the carriageway.
Does it have priority when crossing?
The robot may cross where pedestrians are permitted to cross. Being on a pedestrian crossing does not give it general priority over vehicles. Section 151⁴(1) provides an exception when crossing a road into which a driver is turning.
The robot or controller must assess safety and the ability to complete the crossing without stopping on the carriageway. The general duty to yield has express exceptions in § 17(5), points 1–2, and § 35(11). Route planning must read these rules together, rather than assume that a robot always has a pedestrian's legal position.
What identification and records are required?
The device must bear a legible identification number, the user's name and telephone number. The Act requires visibility through lights and reflectors, while detailed technical parameters are left to implementing regulation.
The user retains six months of records concerning the route, time, position and speed, commands and the person issuing them, movement without human intervention, sensor faults requiring intervention, and owner and insurance details. Records must be provided on request to the traffic supervisory authority or a court. This duty does not replace a separate personal-data-protection assessment.
