Who is Liable for the UBER Self-Driving Crash? Analysis of the Liability Allocation and the Regulatory Model for Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

It is widely believed that autonomous vehicles will significantly reduce the number of car accidents and therefore save lives. However, autonomous vehicles will also crash. Uber’s fatal self-driving crash in 2018 has attracted attention from all over the world. This article analyzes the Uber crash case from the perspective of Chinese law. If the Uber crash happened in China, both Uber and the driver would be at fault. Uber disabled the test vehicle’s original emergency braking function under computer control, causing a defect in the test vehicle. Therefore, the original car manufacturer could be exempted from liability due to Uber’s conversion of the vehicle. Uber’s aggressive testing attitude has also played a role in this fatal accident. Besides, the safety driver was on the job when the collision occurred. Therefore, her employer Uber, would be liable for damages resulting from the accident. By analyzing the Uber case under the context of the Chinese legal regime, we found that in the event of an autonomous car crash, potential liable parties would be the car manufacturer, the self-driving system developer and operator, the parts manufacturer, the safety driver, the pedestrian, etc. Liabilities should be allocated reasonably among them. It should be noted that, the Uber crash could also be partly attributed to Arizona’s lax approach to regulating autonomous vehicles, which gives all regulatory authorities a lesson of finding a balance between technology development and safety.