Imputing Liability In Autonomous Vehicles: Issues, Challenges, And A Comparative Study With Special Reference To The Laws Of The United States, United Kingdom, And European Union
- IJLLR Journal
- 36 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Devansh Aggarwal, Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University
Satyam Sharma, Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University
ABSTRACT
The introduction of autonomous vehicles as a business and regulatory reality has revealed one of the fundamental conflicts underlying the tort law: a legal framework that relies on human agency and fault may not be well-equipped to allocate responsibility when the party making the driving decision is an algorithm. The article discusses the theoretical and practical issues of imputing liability in the autonomous vehicle accident setting and in particular how the United States, United Kingdom and European Union have approached these issues and in significant ways failed to do so. Based on SAE automation levels as an analytical grid, the article identifies the following core issues in doctrines: the breakdown of the driver-vehicle distinction, the impossibility of the application of negligence principles to machine decision-making, the ineffectiveness of the existing product liability frameworks and the difficulty of the evidentiary opaqueness in AI-based systems. The comparative analysis shows that no jurisdiction has so far produced any fully consistent liability framework, and that the decisions each has made reflect more profound jurisprudential commitments of risk, innovation and the purpose of tort law.
Keywords: Autonomous Vehicles, Liability, Tort Law, Product Liability, SAE Levels, AI, United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Comparative Law
