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If A Driverless Car Crashes, Who's Liable?

Who's on the hook?
Eric Risberg
/
AP
Who's on the hook?

Some number of years from now, the technology may exist for cars to drive themselves. This could save thousands of lives a year (90 percent of fatal car accidents involve human error).

But getting the technology right won't be enough. Governments and courts will have to figure out lots of new legal and regulatory issues. One key question: If a driverless car crashes, who's liable?

"It's absolutely the case that after the first accident involving an automated vehicle, there will be an automated ambulance chaser following," says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute.

The auto industry is aware of the legal risk. "We have great exposure as an industry in terms of product liability," says Dan Gage of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. "And I think as an industry ... most of us suspect that there will always be someone in that driver's seat."

Jeff Dial, an Arizona legislator, introduced a bill last year that would update Arizona law to cover driverless cars.

"After I introduced the bill, then suddenly all the insurance companies started approaching me with the questions of the liability," he says. "The more you deal with this issue, the more the issue grows and grows."

One possible solution comes from the vaccine industry.

In the 1980s, the rising threat of liability prompted vaccine manufacturers to pull out of the business. So Congress stepped in and created a new system for people who are injured by vaccines. Cases are handled in special hearings, and victims are paid out of a fund created by a special tax on vaccines.

With the threat of liability reduced, more companies started making vaccines again.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Cory Turner reports and edits for the NPR Ed team. He's helped lead several of the team's signature reporting projects, including "The Truth About America's Graduation Rate" (2015), the groundbreaking "School Money" series (2016), "Raising Kings: A Year Of Love And Struggle At Ron Brown College Prep" (2017), and the NPR Life Kit parenting podcast with Sesame Workshop (2019). His year-long investigation with NPR's Chris Arnold, "The Trouble With TEACH Grants" (2018), led the U.S. Department of Education to change the rules of a troubled federal grant program that had unfairly hurt thousands of teachers.
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  • New technology is getting us closer and closer to the point where cars will drive themselves. Automakers are testing and refining systems that will make this happen. But our love for control may keep us from riding in these cars anytime soon.
  • Supporters of the technology say it will save a million lives a year and prevent a global carmageddon. But among the questions still to be worked out: If a self-driving car runs a red light and gets caught, who gets the ticket?
  • NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Jon Kuhl, public affairs and media manager at the National Conference of State Legislatures, about new laws going into effect Jan. 1. The laws include three tech-related rules in California — one about texting, another about driverless cars and a third about social media passwords.
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