The Subrogation Trap In Self-Driving Car Insurance
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 hours ago
- 1 min read
Tanmai Karwa, Christ (Deemed To Be University), Pune, Lavasa
Ishwankey Gupta, Christ (Deemed To Be University), Pune, Lavasa
ABSTRACT
The entry of fully autonomous cars (Levels 4 and 5) threatens the foundational principles of the law of motor vehicle liability and insurance, founded on the negligence of human operators. In traditional systems the insurers recoup their loss in subrogation of the party to fault by references of the evidence available. The self-driving cars are disrupting this paradigm since the liability ceases to rest with the drivers but with the designers and programmers in the strict sense of product liability.
To ensure that victims receive compensation on time, countries such as the United Kingdom and the European Union are pressurizing motor insurers to join the first-time payers in the event of an autonomous vehicle-induced accident. Although the statutory rights of action against the manufacturers have been granted to the insurers, this paper argues that the rights are only malusory. Algorithms decision logs, sensor logs, and software update logs are proprietary information, and manufacturers have exclusive access to these crucial technical evidences. The aforementioned information asymmetry renders it virtually impossible to assign the flaws of the design and successfully pursue the claims of subrogation of the insurers.
This leads to the general insurance pool bearing the economic costs of the maker defects and distorting actuarial models, increasing premiums and moral hazard by creating less responsibility in the maker. The article suggests new legislation, including the introduction of mandatory data reporting, assumptions of burden sharing, and liability enterprise platforms, to restore fairness, financial security, and safety incentives in autonomous vehicle insurance.
