Auto industry ponders robot-car liability

Last updated: March 6, 2014 7:16 pm

Auto industry ponders robot-car liability

By Chris Bryant in Frankfurt and Henry Foy in London

Who is to blame if your self-driving car crashes? The automotive industry is trying to answer this somewhat futuristic question, according to the chief executive of parts supplier Continental. 

However, Elmar Degenhart said the issue – a possible barrier to a future of robot cars – remains to be solved.

Autonomous vehicles are one of the car industry’s most competitive areas of innovation, with some estimates suggesting that the potential to cut road deaths and injuries could be worth more than $5tn in benefits.

But while carmakers and outside players such as Google race to fine-tune the technology, complex questions of liability are starting to confound executives over what happens if a driver takes their hands off the wheel and an accident occurs.

“Who is liable when during partly or fully-autonomous driving the responsibility for what the car does is transferred from the driver to the car. Who is liable for the vehicle: is it the manufacturer, a neutral institution, or . . . [the part] supplier?” Mr Degenhart asked.

Continental, which posted more than €1.9bn in net profit for 2013 and whose stock gained 82 per cent over the course of that year, predicts that fully-autonomous driving – with no monitoring by the driver necessary – will be a reality by 2025.

Mark Fields, chief operating officer at Ford, said at this week’s Geneva Motor Show that while the US carmaker was confident it could provide the technology to make “the majority” of driving autonomous by the end of the decade, fears over lawsuits and regulators would likely stymie full autonomy for many years after that.

One possible model is the system that protects suppliers of childhood vaccines. Vaccines – like autonomous vehicles – help reduce injury and death but occasionally make people seriously ill. In the US a trust fund compensates people who fall ill due to vaccines and at the same time protects the industry from ruinous lawsuits.

Self-driving cars could contribute $1.3tn in to the US economy and $5.6tn globally each year in terms of savings from prevented accidents, according to a recent note by Morgan Stanley.

“There will undoubtedly be bumps in the road as well, including the issues of liability, infrastructure, and consumer acceptance,” the bank added.

Mr Degenhart on Thursday reiterated Continental’s aim to reduce road deaths to zero via a combination of autonomous driving and safety systems. “This is no longer a utopian vision. We are convinced road accidents should end up as commemorative souvenirs in museums,” he said.

But he insisted that for the insurance industry there was no cause for alarm, and that drivers will still need accident cover.

“Quite the contrary, insurance companies encourage the introduction of driver-assistance systems that help to avoid accidents and offer incentives for certain features,” he said.

“I can hardly imagine we will come to a point when we can do without [accident] insurance altogether . . . I don’t think the insurance industry’s business model is threatened.”

Continental, which recently opened a €240m tyre plant in Kaluga, Russia, also sounded a warning about Ukraine.

“We observe the situation with concern. We can’t believe at the moment that this conflict will dramatically escalate – that can’t be in the interest of Russia or in particular of Europe,” Mr Degenhart said. “One is playing somewhat with fire. We hope the situation will calm in the short term and compromises are found.”