論自動駕駛汽車的侵權責任及其救濟

Abstract

Upon the rise of the self-driving automobile industry and the rapid development of AI technology, legal status of the self-driving cars and the tort liabilities therein, have become hotly debated issues attracting attentions of critical legal scholarship. The issues emerge variously from self-driving cars ranging from liability assumption in traffic accidents, product liabilities when self-driving cars as a product uses self-driving system from other service providers, and data infringement arising out of illegal data processing when self-driving technology’s algorithmic decisions overly rely big data processing. Traditional motor vehicle traffic accident or product liability tort remedies appear to be inadequate responding to multiple yet intertwining legal issues. The tension between traditional infringement victim relief and the "freedom to act" of emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, data processing, and self-driving system service providers bring challenge to traditional traffic accident liability and product liability relief.

The infringement relief of automatic driving, therefore, is not only related to the damage relief of the infringement victims based on traditional infringement system, but should also be balanced with to the protection of the “actors freedom” in the development interests of the data processing industry, system service providers and other industries in the autonomous driving industry. For the purpose of this research, this paper takes L3-L5 self-driving cars as the research subject and discusses the issue of balancing victim relief and legal liability under the conditions of “freedom to act” for corresponding industries in the field of autonomous vehicles. There is an urgent need to adapt and reform traditional legal imputation for the damage caused by people to the legal regulation of the responsibility of self-driving cars. The development of autonomous driving industry under the wave of artificial intelligence challenges the traditional relief mode of tort law that focuses primarily on the interests of accident victims from the perspectives of driving subjects, data processing and system service providers.

The brand-new self-driving infringement transcends tort law as a traditional damage relief system and calls for the joint force mode of balancing victim relief and freedom to act of industrial actors. Overall, this paper suggests a critical consideration of civil rights and interests of the victim relief and freedom to act of industrial actors. It is therefore calling for adopting a joint-force of “product liability and motor vehicle traffic accident liability” supplemented by the compulsory liability insurance system. By transforming traditional tort liability system to adapt to the new wave of technological development, the dissertation suggests a distribution scheme of tort liability among different subjects and actors for a balance of their rights to remedy and freedom to act in regulating the tort liability for self-driving cars. At the same time, establish a data infringement protection system in which the self-driving data protection policy develops synchronously with the trend of economic globalization, strike a balance between the protection of rights and the encouragement of innovation, and ensure that the new technology can better serve the human society through the reign of law.

Date of Award	9 Jan 2025
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Wenwei GUAN (Supervisor)