Study On The Tort Liability Of Traffic Accidents Caused By Autonomous Vehicles

As the representative technology of artificial intelligence,autonomous vehicles have obvious advantages in security and efficiency compared with traditional cars.In recent years,a number of governments,the major internet giants and traditional vehicle manufacturers have devoted a great deal of effort to the research of autonomous vehicle in the hope of taking advantage of this technology and even the artificial intelligence.Under this background,it is vital to research on the tort liability in the crash accidents which will caused by the autonomous vehicles.because this technology will take the place of human drivers gradually.What’s more,we cannot ignore the characteristics of high level of autonomy and phased development of this artificial intelligence technology.The research of this paper will be divided into two directions,one is the liability of motor vehicle traffic accident,the other is the product liability.In the respect of liability of motor vehicle traffic accident,the phased development of technology indicates that it will take time for the autonomous driving system to replace human drivers eventually,so the current liability system will continue to apply for a long time.In the period of advanced driving assistance,human is still the driver of the car,and the autonomous system only help us to have a better control.In the period of conditional driving automation.although the autonomy degree of system increased,human users still have a certain obligation to ensure the safe driving of vehicles.And in certain situations,human users should resume the operation of the vehicle and achieve minimal risk conditions.Consequentially,the current liability system of motor vehicle traffic accidents can still apply to the above mentioned two phases.But in the period of high and full driving automation,human users become passengers and don’t perform the driving task when the autonomous driving system is engaged,so the current system cannot be used.Constructing the liability system of vehicle owner may be the countermeasure,but the theoretical basis is not solid in the context of automatic driving,and it will bring navigate impact on the development of automatic driving industry.In the aspect of product liability,we focus on the judgement of warning and design defects based on the case of the first man died in automatic driving car in Florida in 2016.The problem of warning defects can be solved in the current product liability system,but because of the novelty and complexity of automatic driving technology,the scope of manufacturers’ warning obligation should be expanded appropriately.The consumers must be educated and trained to guarantee they really know how to safely use this new technology.The current liability rules cannot apply to the determination of design defects.But the risk-utility test is more applicable to the problem of design defects in the period of advanced driving assistance and conditional driving automation.The high degree of autonomy of automatic driving system will lead to some difficulties in judging the reasons that cause accidents and applying the risk-utility test.This paper holds that a new manufacturer liability rule should be established to achieve balance in protecting the interest of victims,encouraging technological innovation and risk decentralization.In summary,in the period of advanced driving assistance and conditional driving automation,the current liability of motor vehicle traffic accidents is still applicable,so the compensation of victims cannot be affected.But because the inapplicability of current product liability in determination of defects,it will be difficult for the consumers to recourse from manufacturers.As a result,in short and medium term,the current legal system does not need to be greatly adjusted,while introducing the risk-utility test into the judgement of product defect to reduce the obstacle of investigating manufacturers’ liability.However,in the period of high and full driving automation,the current liability system is not applicable on the whole,and we should construct new manufacturer liability rule to deal with the challenges posed by high level autonomous vehicles.