ABSTRACT
The Product Liability Directive (PLD) controls the present risk appropriation associated with the operation of motor vehicles in the European Union. However, after more than three decades, technological advancements have rendered the Directive obsolete and incapable of addressing the basic issues that may come from software implanted in independently operating AVs in the public sphere. By transferring decision-making authority from humans to complex systems that can learn and include a multitude of players and components, AV’s have brought about not just a technical but also a legal transformation. The attribution of complete decisionmaking authority to the algorithmic system or the sharing of decision-making authority between the driver and the algorithmic system raises the issue of the relevant liability regime in the case of an accident. The intricacy of the activities and the number of players engaged in such an accident render the standards of product liability law under the PLD inapplicable. The various on-board systems interact with each other and with drivers on a very large scale; they operate in an opaque manner, making it difficult to determine where the harm occurred. Hence, the current system has no real prospect of anticipating such behaviour, which is dynamic and evolving.
Krishnan, Aditya, Product Liability for Autonomous Vehicles With Respect to the Product Liability Directive, 1985: A Need for Revision? (October 21, 2022).
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