Automated vehicles – is a dilution of human responsibility the answer?
| Author | Patrick S. Günsberg |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20322844221138049 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
New Journal of European Criminal Law
2022, Vol. 13(4) 439–451
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/20322844221138049
journals.sagepub.com/home/nje
Automated vehicles –is
a dilution of human
responsibility the answer?
Patrick S. Günsberg
University of Helsinki, Finland
Abstract
AI-driven vehicles and other artificial intelligence (AI) systems may cause serious injury to people
while operating independently. Besides vehicles progress may be seen in the use of autonomous
weapon systems, AI in medicine and care robots. It seems that soon AI systems will increasingly be
making decisions previously made by humans. A Swedish inquiry argued that existing criminal law
rules on responsibility are not suitable for automated vehicles (when in the self-driving mode). The
human in the driver’s seat would not be blamed if an accident occurs. Conversely, the Proposal for
a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence places an emphasis on oversight by human beings to an extent.
A battle for the hearts and minds of people might be underway here. It seems that furth er ex-
ploration of the matter is warranted, especially through the criminal law lens—are proposals where
the human user is absolved of blame viable at this point in time?
Keywords
Artificial intelligence, criminal responsibility, dilution of human responsibility, negligence, strict
liability
Corresponding author:
Patrick S. Günsberg,
Email: patrick.gunsberg@helsinki.fi
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