This blog post examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding liability and punishment standards in the event of an accident involving a self-driving car.
February 23, 2016. This is the day when an unmanned vehicle under development by Google in San Francisco, USA, caused its first accident and was held responsible for the accident. This was because the unmanned vehicle under development by Google misjudged whether the bus coming from the opposite side would yield. This was the fault of Google’s unmanned vehicle.
An unmanned vehicle is a vehicle that can reach its destination by understanding the road conditions on its own without the driver’s operation. Unmanned vehicles are also called autonomous vehicles. Unmanned vehicles are equipped with devices such as video cameras that can recognize road signs on the inside of the windshield and a global positioning system (GPS). A laser scanner can be attached to the roof of the vehicle to avoid overtaking vehicles and to adjust the speed to the speed limit. Through these technologies, unmanned vehicles can detect their surroundings without human intervention and navigate autonomously. Unmanned vehicles detect their surroundings in real time and use a predictive system based on precise maps using GPS, etc. Unmanned vehicles are controlled by computers, not humans, who make comprehensive judgments based on all of these factors.
Many companies, including Google, are working to develop unmanned vehicles. The day when unmanned vehicles will actually be on the road is not far off. Even now, some countries are conducting test runs of unmanned vehicles under limited conditions in certain areas. This is based not only on technology but also on legal and social consensus. For example, these test runs improve the safety of unmanned vehicles and at the same time accumulate data on the problems that may arise when unmanned vehicles are actually driven on the road.
However, there are still issues that need to be resolved before unmanned vehicles can actually be driven on the road, one of which is the issue of liability for accidents involving unmanned vehicles and the issue of punishment for unmanned vehicles. Active discussions are needed on the liability and punishment for accidents caused by unmanned vehicles. Before the actual driving of unmanned vehicles on the road begins in earnest, it is necessary to reach a satisfactory conclusion and enact relevant laws. Of course, the question of who is responsible for accidents caused by unmanned vehicles has not been discussed. Most of the discussions have been about whether the unmanned vehicle company or the passengers should be held responsible.
However, this issue can go beyond the question of responsibility and extend to discussions about how society should accept and adjust to advanced technologies such as unmanned vehicles. If the liability for an accident involving an unmanned vehicle is placed on the manufacturer of the unmanned vehicle, it will place a significant burden on the manufacturer. This may encourage manufacturers to focus more on technological improvements to increase safety, but at the same time, it may also discourage innovation by increasing fear of introducing new technologies.
However, I think that in the case of an unmanned vehicle that requires no human intervention, the unmanned vehicle itself, not the company or the passengers, can be held responsible. Unmanned vehicles will be combined with artificial intelligence and information and communication technologies. The incorporation of artificial intelligence into unmanned vehicles may mean that the decisions made by the unmanned vehicles based on the road conditions may not be as intended by the company that manufactured the unmanned vehicles. In such cases, I wonder if the company that manufactured the driverless car can be held fully responsible. Also, if the driverless car makes all the decisions, I don’t think the passengers can be held responsible either. Therefore, I think that a certain percentage of responsibility should be placed on the driverless car for accidents caused by the driverless car’s negligence.
Legally, responsibility means the requirements for an actor who can be condemned by society for committing a violation. The Criminal Code also specifies whether or not the person is responsible as the person responsible. If unmanned vehicles become commercialized in the future, there may come a time when unmanned vehicles are held responsible for accidents. At that time, the law will have to be amended to include the artificial intelligence technology of unmanned vehicles as the person responsible. And when the time comes to hold driverless cars accountable, the issue of punishing driverless cars for their negligence will also have to be discussed. Punishment is intended to punish the person responsible for the crime and prevent the crime from reoccurring. In fact, many people will doubt whether it is possible to punish driverless cars, which are not human beings, and whether it is even useful, and they probably haven’t even thought about it.
This raises an interesting question: When an unmanned vehicle causes an accident, is it enough to hold it accountable for the accident? This also leads to the question of whether this can strengthen trust in the safety of unmanned vehicles. If the liability of an unmanned vehicle is only resolved by material compensation, this may not be very helpful in preventing future accidents. Rather, it is more important to thoroughly analyze the causes of accidents caused by unmanned vehicles to reduce accidents, and to improve the system based on the data.
However, I believe that if we are to hold driverless cars accountable, we must impose punishment, and that punishment will be completely different from the punishments that are currently imposed on people under the criminal law. In this regard, we will also have to consider how to reduce the number of errors made by driverless cars. For example, we may need to have a regulation that driverless cars that have caused more than a certain number of accidents should be taken out of service and undergo a complete system overhaul and improvement.
If an unmanned vehicle causes an accident through negligence, there must be a part where the unmanned vehicle is held responsible. If this is not done, innocent victims will be caused by accidents caused by unmanned vehicles through negligence, and the people developing unmanned vehicles may become less concerned with safety. Therefore, I think that we should specify the liability for accidents caused by unmanned vehicles before the era of unmanned vehicles controlling all driving situations comes. There will be a lot of discussion and debate in this process. I also think that we should think about how to hold unmanned vehicles accountable, what kind of punishment to impose, and what the form of punishment will be.
Finally, in order for driverless cars to become a safe and reliable means of transportation, not only technological perfection but also ethical and legal standards must be developed. This is a new paradigm shift across society, and it is also a question of how prepared we are. The challenges and discussions ahead will not be simply technical issues, but will require deep reflection on the relationship between humans and machines, responsibility, and trust.
