What do you call the person behind the wheel of a self-driving car? Are they a passenger or owner or are they still the driver? Whatever they’re called, the UK‘s Law Commission says they shouldn’t be held responsible if their “autonomous” vehicle is in an accident.
Under a new proposal from the UK‘s Law Commission, the “user in charge” of the vehicle would not be prosecuted for careless or dangerous driving, speeding, or breaking red lights when the car was in self-driving mode, the Telegraph reports.
The Law Commission instead suggests that responsibility should fall on the developer or manufacturer of the hardware that enables self-driving functions on the vehicle.
Directors of said manufacturing companies would have corporate liability, which means they would be prosecuted when the cause of an accident has been confirmed. If the failure of self-driving technologies play a part, directors can expect to be reprimanded.