Research On The Criminal Liability Of Traffic Accidents Caused By Autonomous Vehicles

At present,with the rapid development of self-driving vehicle technology,many countries around the world are drawing up the rules to regulate self-driving vehicles on the road.In the United States and China,there have been successive cases of deaths caused by self-driving vehicles,and the regulatory scope of traffic accidents has also attracted attention.After the self-driving vehicle causes traffic accident consequences,the subject that may bear criminal responsibility mainly include the manufacturer(designer),seller,user of the self-driving vehicle,and the self-driving vehicle itself.In Chinese existing criminal law system,it is difficult to find a basis for directly applicable liability distribution.In order to determine the possible crimes for all parties,we must find the basis from the existing criminal law theory.According to the principle of "no action is no crime" in our country,after the self-driving vehicle results in the traffic accident,if the institution or the natural person fails to perform the behavior that caused the result,it is unreasonable for them to be the object of criminal law condemnation.In this case,we need to challenge Traditional philosophy and ethics,that is,to determine whether self-driving vehicles can obtain the qualifications of criminal law subjects and whether their behavior can be regarded as criminal behavior.After comparing the legislation of overseas countries and regions,we can draw on the experience of way to determine the responsibilities of self-driving vehicles after the accident.They are as follows: first of all,determine the criminal subject status of the self-driving vehicles,and avoid the application of the principle of “no action is no crime” to cause the victim to lose protection of corresponding interests;secondly,determining the way in which self-driving vehicles take responsibility,such as using insurance money as a way to pay fines;etc.;and finally,the basis for whether all parties should bear responsibility and installing "black boxes" which record all information details as an important source of evidence.