Criminal Liability of Autonomous Driving System Suppliers in Traffic Accidents (Part I)

Autonomous vehicle accidents involve drivers, car manufacturers, autonomous driving systems, and suppliers. The question of who is responsible for a significant accident becomes a very complex issue after it occurs. Suppliers must study their criminal liability as developers, controllers, and ultimate beneficiaries of the system. Naturally, individuals have the legal capacity for criminal responsibility in traffic accidents, while car manufacturers, who are independent of the system suppliers, have limited attention obligations due to commercial secrets and technologies. The autonomous driving system has a significant impact on related traffic accidents but is limited by its qualities and technological level and does not have the legal capacity for criminal liability. Due to the high degree of specialization of technical norms and their high degree of fit to AI products, technical norms are needed to determine the suppliers’ duty of care when the subjective aspect of the crime is negligence. The crime of producing or selling false or inferior products and major responsibility accidents crimes cannot effectively pursue their criminal liability, and the problem of liability pursuit should be solved by explaining or modifying the existing specifications or establishing the crimes of designing, producing artificial intelligence products that do not conform to technical norms.