Automatisiertes Fahren – Europäisches Haftungsrecht

The introduction on the market of (semi)autonomous cars led to first regulatory changes, but, at the same time, involved new liability issues which in part still need to be addressed by the law. For this reason, the chapter starts from the perspective of European regulation and sets out the European state of the art on the connected and automated driving (CAD). Once the European framework of rules will have been outlined, this chapter will analyse the legal systems of the European Union member states that have already provided a regulation for semi-autonomous vehicles. Finally, it will be evaluated if the current liability rules are adequate also if the damage is caused by a fully autonomous vehicle, or if it is necessary to modify the existing regulation and possibly to introduce a new specific regulation for self-driving cars.