Liability rules and self-driving cars: The evolution of tort law in the light of new technologies (Ristampa 2023)

The work is focused on the new profiles of civil liability that can arise in the event of a traffic accident between two vehicles, at least one of which is (semi)autonomous. In this scenario, starting from a critical analysis of the state of the art, the work achieves two aims thanks to an interdisciplinary research method applied. First of all, it evaluates whether there is a civil liability regulation which is functional to the protection of the injured person, even in the event of a traffic accident due to a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous vehicle. Secondly, it verifies whether this legislation is sufficient for complete and systematic regulation of autonomous vehicles, or if it is necessary to modify the existing regulation and, eventually, to introduce an ad hoc framework of rules for self-driving cars accidents.