Special aspects of civil liability for harm caused by highly and fully automated cars

In this thesis, the author investigates the features of civil liability for damage caused by highly and fully automated cars. The rapid improvement of self-driving technology raises a number of challenges to Russian tort law. However, there is a significant lack of research dedicated to this topic. An adequate level of legal certainty cannot be reached in the absence of well-established approaches to accounting for the features of highly and fully automated cars, which impedes further development of the industry. In this paper, the features of civil liability for damage caused by highly and fully automated cars are analyzed at three levels: (1) the structure of a tort obligation, (2) the elements of liability, (3) the limitations of liability. At the first level, the paper focuses on the features of highly and fully automated vehicles as a means of causing damage. Such features affect the circle of parties to a tort obligation. Further on, the elements of liability and limitations thereof are considered in the context of general delict and special delicts, namely infliction of damage by abnormally dangerous activity and product liability. Special attention is paid to the issues connected with the shift in liability from the owner to the manufacturer, as well as striking the balance between the interests of all parties involved. Finally, the author comes forth with conclusions regarding the features of civil liability for damage caused by highly and fully automated cars, and introduces a number of suggestions on how such features could be accounted for in laws and regulations and court practice. Keywords: self-driving cars, highly automated vehicles, fully automated vehicles, liability, harm.