I veicoli ad automazione crescente: profili di responsabilità civile

The research analyzes the possibile development of road traffic liability, product liability and car insurance in the face of the progressive automation of the global vehicle fleet. Moving from a historical overview of the rules currently governing road traffic liability on the European continent, the research shows how this subject has developed over the decades, looking for a difficult balance between effective protection of injured parties and economic efficiency. As a result, road traffic liability regimes have some unique characteristics, which are expected to remain relevant even when the global vehicle fleet is composed of highly automated vehicles. The challenges posed by automation change with the degrees of technological advancement. By seeking to enhance the dialogue with technology, the research shows that there are realistic evolutions and utopian prospects, and that the excessive focus on the latter has contributed to an underestimation of the impact that more basic forms of autonomy have on road traffic. In fact, the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) – although they do not require amendments to existing civil liability systems – have so far been developed by requiring humans to adapt to the machine, and not the other way around. In contrast, safety needs would dictate that the software of the future be designed following a human-centered philosophy. More advanced levels of automation raise question about whether current traffic liability regimes should be amended, especially given the fact that the vehicle owner is no longer in the best position to manage risks. Preliminarily highlighting the need for a liberal and confident approach toward innovation, hypotheses for regulation that have emerged in the debate have been analyzed: given the difficulty of finding a clearly winning compromise between protecting third parties and incentivizing innovation, it is believed that the key lies in a simple, technically aware, sector-specific regulation that is adaptable to the multiple mobility scenarios of the future. The soft-law can be a useful tool for managing the technology's market debut, while waiting for evidence to suggest in which direction the technology will evolve and – consequently – the most appropriate civil liability framework.