Self-Driving Vehicles: Liability Assignment In Crashes And Violations

The rise of self-driving cars¹ has fundamentally disrupted traditional notions of fault in traffic incidents. Where once the actions of human drivers determined liability, today the “driver” is often software, sensors, and algorithms. As deployments expand in cities like Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, and San Francisco, courts, regulators, and insurers grapple with assigning responsibility when a self-driving car crashes or commits a traffic violation. Absent a comprehensive federal liability statute, the default remains patchwork state law and conventional tort theories. This GT Advisory examines the core legal issues, recent developments, and the potential path forward in self-driving liability, federal and state regulation, insurance coverage, and the evolving legal standards governing self-driving cars and corporate accountability.