Research On Tort Liability Of Autonomous Vehicles Traffic Accident

As an important carrier and typical application of cross-border integration between automobile and information and communication industries,autonomous driving vehicle represents the future development direction of automobile technology and industry,and is also an important position for future competition of international automobile industry.On the one hand,the production and use of self-driving cars can alleviate traffic congestion,improve driving safety and expand the number of people using cars.However,on the other hand,it may also cause traffic accidents,which involves the handling of traffic accidents and the application of tort liability.Self-driving cars are artificial intelligence products with certain intelligence and autonomous learning ability,but they do not have independent legal personality and are still special cars in nature.Therefore,in terms of the traffic accidents caused by it,this paper discusses the tort liability of autonomous driving vehicle traffic accidents from the two aspects of "motor vehicle traffic accident liability" and "product liability" in the sense of Chinese law.In addition to the introduction,the text mainly discusses from the following four aspects:The first part aims to reveal the dilemma of tort liability in the case of traffic accident.First,the autonomy of self-driving cars drive main body gradually by the driver moved to the car itself,driving the change of the body may cause the dynamic change of the main responsibility,the responsibility main body may be transferred from the owner or user of self-driving cars to self-driving car producers and sellers and automatic driving system providers,software engineers,how to determine the responsibility main body become a problem should focus on the research in this field.Second,when man-machine hybrid driving,the driver’s duty of care changes from obeying traffic rules to the duty of "keeping alert",so the take-over problem needs to be analyzed emphatically.Third,in driverless driving,the application of the current road traffic safety law to assume liability based on "whether the motor vehicle is at fault or not" will face difficulties.Fourth,self-driving cars are a new thing,and their national and industrial standards are still in the process of formulation.Moreover,self-driving cars have autonomous learning ability under autonomous driving,which will bring challenges to the determination of manufacturing defects,design defects and warning defects.Fifth,as for the identification of the exemption cause of self-driving cars,considering the acquired learning ability of self-driving cars,it is necessary to examine the application ofthe exemption cause in the current tort law in self-driving cars.The second part focuses on the principle of imputation and the judgment rules of the subject of responsibility in the case of traffic accident.The following conclusions can be drawn from the comprehensive analysis and reference to the German road traffic safety law,the application of elevator liability,the liability provisions for the installation of autopilot aircraft and the application of black box technology:First,on the principle of imputation,different driving stages should be distinguished and different imputation principles should be applied.In the conditional driving stage,in the autopilot mode,liability should be imputed according to the product liability rules and the principle of no-fault liability.In the take-over process,it is necessary to judge according to whether the system gives the driver appropriate take-over time.If the appropriate take-over time is not given,the driver shall be deemed not to be at fault and shall only be dealt with in accordance with the principle of imputation of product liability.In the highly autonomous driving and fully autonomous driving stages,hazard liability shall be applied,and liability shall be imputed according to product liability rules and no-fault liability.Second,on the subject of responsibility,different driving stages should also be distinguished for discussion.In the conditional driving stage,if the driver does not use the automatic driving system,the liability subject shall be determined according to the current automobile traffic accident liability rules.If it is in the autopilot stage,the product responsibility should be borne by the producer.In the take-over process,if the system provides enough take-over time,if the owner and user are consistent,the owner of the self-driving car should assume the responsibility.Under the circumstance that everybody and use person are inconsistent,by insurance company first inside deliver strong insurance limits compensation,insufficient part assumes responsibility by use person,car owner assumes responsibility only under the circumstance that has fault;On the contrary,if the system does not provide enough takeover time,the car manufacturers should be responsible;In addition,if the time for the take-over cannot be determined,the owner or user of the car and the car manufacturer should be jointly and severally liable.In the stage of highly autonomous driving and fully autonomous driving,the responsibility subject should be the producer of autonomous cars.In the third part,the author discusses the rules of product liability in traffic accidents.As for the product liability of self-driving cars,the main difficulty lies in the identification ofproduct defects and the application of exemption reasons.Product defects are mainly analyzed from the factor of "unreasonable risk".Identification of manufacturing defects should focus on "off-design" testing and "fault principles" and be measured against the development of autonomous vehicles.The design defects are mainly analyzed from the aspects of "consumer expectation test","risk utility test" and "reasonable automobile standard".After the self-driving car is put into use,the producer must give a reasonable explanation and warning about the possible risk of damage caused by the car,and tell the user of the self-driving car how to use the car safely.Otherwise,the producer shall be deemed to have violated the warning obligation,which means the product has warning defects.As for the exemption reasons,the development risk defense should be limited to explain;At the same time,the level of technology put into circulation should be in line with international standards.In terms of defense,in order to avoid excessive product liability of the producer,the producer can defend through the victim’s intention and hacking.The fourth part aims to build the tort liability decentralization mechanism of autonomous vehicle traffic accidents.In the case of traffic accident,the tort liability of self-driving cars should mainly depend on the establishment and improvement of relevant insurance system.To this end,we should refer to the "national automobile insurance fund","no-fault liability compensation system" and "dual liability insurance structure" outside the region,so as to construct the dual insurance structure of "compulsory product liability insurance" insured by the automobile owners or users plus the "compulsory product liability insurance" insured by the automobile manufacturers.In addition,it is suggested to build a no-fault liability compensation system in the future to improve the insurance structure.