Liability Standards for Automated Vehicle Shared-Driving Crashes

When insurance companies seek to determine coverage liability in a car crash, there are only four possible outcomes: (1) the insured was liable; (2) another party was liable; (3) liability was shared among the insured and other parties; or (4) no liability. Assessing and allocating liability are critical components of every property/casualty insurance claim decision regarding automobile crashes. The key then is to provide underwriters and adjusters with the knowledge and tools to accurately assess and determine liability.

Determining exactly what happened in a car crash is often very difficult. That determination will be exponentially more difficult in crashes where a car has a human driver and automated driving capabilities. Existing legal standards for allocating liability in car crashes are not designed to consider non-human “drivers”; and the absence of specific guidance and definitions will leave legislators, regulators, judges, and juries ill-equipped to make important determinations in this space. Auto insurance companies will benefit from a greater understanding of how the proper application of local legal standards and duties to such vehicles will ensure that actual losses are evaluated better and recovery potential can be improved.