Research On Tort Liability Of Autonomous Vehicles

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology,autonomous vehicles have become a reality,and an era of autonomous vehicles is coming.Although autonomous vehicles are designed to avoid traffic accidents,they do not guarantee absolute safety.As a matter of fact,reports of casualties caused by autonomous vehicles have been reported frequently,resulting in problems of tort liability.On the one hand,after the arrival of the autonomous vehicle,the automatic driving system gradually takes the place of the manual driving mode,and the role of the human driver was increasingly reduced and replaced.The traditional traffic accident liability rules established by the driver's driving behavior and driving fault are difficult to continue to apply;on the other hand,as the specific application of artificial intelligence in Automobile Field,autonomous vehicles have a high degree of intelligent attributes,which makes them different from any traditional products,thus challenging the current product liability system.Based on this,this paper studies the issue of tort liability caused by autonomous vehicles.The full text is divided into five parts,which are as follows:The first part is the tort liability challenge of autonomous vehicles,which mainly reveals the challenge of autonomous vehicles to the current tort liability rules.Firstly,this paper analyzes the historical evolution,technical grading and social value of autonomous vehicles,analyzes the concept and characteristics of autonomous vehicles,and compared with the concepts of assisted driving,driverless vehicles,smart cars and intelligent network cars.Secondly,by comparing the legal regulation of autonomous vehicles in the United States,Germany,the United Kingdom and China,it is known that most countries are encouraging to conduct autonomous vehicles road tests.The issue of tort liability of autonomous vehicles has become a difficult topic of widespread concern,but did not form a unified settlement rule.Finally,the challenge of the tort liability of autonomous vehicles are discussed from fact to law,and it is summarized into three main questions: First,whether the autonomous vehicle is a legal subject or a legal object,which is directly related to the selection and design of the tort liability rules of the autonomous vehicle,so it is called the premise problem;the second is the responsibility of the owner and the user of the autonomous vehicle,which is manifested in the challenge of the autonomous vehicle to the responsibility of the current motor vehicle traffic accident,which is called the internal responsibility;the third is the responsibility of the producer and seller of the autonomous vehicle,which is specifically manifested by the challenge of the autonomous vehicle to the current product liability,which is called the external responsibility.The second part is the analysis of the legal status of autonomous vehicles,mainly on whether the autonomous driving car is a legal subject or a legal object.Firstly,this paper analyzes the autonomous vehicle's characteristics of self-driving cars,self-learning and selfdecision,and proposes the confusion of the legal subject status caused by the anthropomorphic tendency of autonomous vehicles.Secondly,combing and analyzing various theories about the legal status of autonomous vehicles,pointing out that the key to judging the legal status of autonomous vehicles is to give their legal subjects status whether they can solve the legal challenges such as tort liability caused by autonomous vehicles,and whether giving autonomous vehicles legal subjects status has the superiority of the system.Finally,on the basis of comparative analysis of the above theories,the this paper is giving the answer to the legal status of autonomous vehicles.This paper believes that the current autonomous vehicles do not have the technical,social ethics and legal basis for obtaining the legal subject status.Giving the status of the legal subject to autonomous vehicles is not the key to solving other legal challenges such as the liability for tort liability.On the contrary,it will increase the legislation and judicial costs,hinder the development of the autonomous vehicle industry.Therefore,this article still defines autonomous vehicle as legal objects.The third part analyses the tort liability rules of autonomous vehicles,mainly the specific settlement rules for the internal and external problem of autonomous vehicles liability.First of all,it discusses the internal problem of the owner and the user of the autonomous vehicle,comparing and evaluating the existing various theories.Secondly,it discusses the external problem of the autonomous vehicle producer and seller,and deeply investigates and reviews the current possible settlements.Finally,the paper solves the problem of internal and external liability of autonomous vehicles.For the responsibility of the owner and user,it is advocated to solve the problem of existing vehicle traffic accidents by introducing the strict liability of the motor vehicle holder.;the producer and the seller should bear the strict liability according to the current product liability,but the specific application of the product liability should be updated accordingly.The fourth part is the update of the autonomous vehicle and product liability,mainly discussing the application of autonomous vehicle product liability.Firstly,it analyzes the principle of liability of autonomous vehicle product liability,and advocates that the principle of the strict liability should be applied to both producers and sellers,and should not distinguish between manufacturing defects,design defects and warning defects.Secondly,it discusses the main subject of autonomous vehicle product liability,and advocates that the main subject of autonomous vehicle product liability includes producers and sellers,but does not include transporters and warehousing,as well as parts and raw material suppliers and software suppliers.Thirdly,it discusses the identification of defects in autonomous vehicles,this paper advocates that the unreasonable danger is the fundamental,comply with the agreement of the parties,and insists on the consumer expectations standard,supplemented by the risk utility standard,and develops the risk defense rules.Then,the author analyzes the causal relationship requirements of the autonomous vehicle product liability,and analyzes the main methods,burden of proof and presumption of the causal relationship judgment in the autonomous vehicle product liability.Finally,the exemptions for the responsibility of autonomous vehicles are discussed,focusing on the development of risk defense rules,it is considered that considering the technical characteristics of the active or passive upgrade of the automatic driving system,the time point for the development of the risk defense rule and the technical level judgment standard are different from the traditional products.The fifth part is the update of the responsibility of autonomous vehicles and motor vehicles traffic accidents,mainly for the application of the responsibility of traffic accidents in autonomous vehicles.Firstly,it discusses the principle of liability for the responsibility of autonomous vehicles in traffic accidents.It advocates that autonomous vehicle holders should bear the strict liability,and at the same time,it is responsible for the strict liability of autonomous vehicles and the dual liability of the traditional motor vehicle "fault liability + fault presumption".It advocates a reform model that uniformly applies the strict liability and an improved model that distinguishes between the principle of different liability for autonomous vehicles and traditional motor vehicles.Secondly,it discusses the identification of autonomous vehicle holder,and advocates “operational dominance + operational benefit” as the criterion for judging the holder.The focus is on the identification of the owner and the separation of the owner when the user is separated,at the same time,the autonomous vehicle producer cannot be regarded as the autonomous vehicle holder.Thirdly,it discusses the specific undertaking of traffic accidents liability of autonomous vehicle,and expounds the constituent elements and exemption reasons respectively.Finally,the paper discusses the responsibility of traffic accidents in the specific situation of autonomous vehicles,including the hybrid of autonomous mode and human driving and the traffic accidents during road test,the coordination and application of the responsibility and product liability of autonomous vehicles,and supporting problem of autonomous vehicles traffic accident liability insurance.