Legal Challenges in Attributing Responsibility for Autonomous Driving Accidents

Abstract

The rise of autonomous vehicles (AVs) presents unprecedented legal, ethical, and regulatory challenges to existing frameworks of liability and responsibility. Traditional legal doctrines, built around human agency and fault-based liability, are increasingly strained by the complexity and opacity of machine decision-making systems. This paper examines the fragmented distribution of responsibility across manufacturers, software developers, users, and regulators, and highlights the legal ambiguity that emerges when causality is shared across distributed technical systems. It explores the regulatory and conceptual gaps that hinder effective adjudication, the influence of public moral expectations on the legitimacy of liability frameworks, and the philosophical dilemmas involved in delegating moral judgment to algorithmic systems. Drawing on legal scholarship, empirical studies, and ethical theory, the paper argues for a multi-stakeholder approach to legal reform, one that incorporates hybrid liability models, institutional coordination, and participatory governance. It concludes by advocating for a reconceptualization of responsibility in the age of autonomous mobility—grounded in transparency, fairness, and normative clarity.