자율주행자동차 보험에 관한 법적 문제

Abstract

The era of autonomous cars is approaching. Although autonomous vehicles have been developed to maximize the convenience and safety of the means of transportation, autonomous vehicles and normal vehicles may coexist on the road for a certain period even if autonomous vehicles are commercialized. Even after all vehicles have been replaced by autonomous vehicles, there is a possibility that the vehicle may malfunction due to mechanical defects, program errors or hacking. Therefore, car accidents will not be completely eliminated even in the era of autonomous vehicles. However, in the case of an accident occurring during autonomous driving, it is possible that the car owner was not substantially driving the vehicle, so it is a problem that they can avoid the liability of the vehicle operator under the Guarantee of Automobile Accident Compensation Act. Of course, if the malfunction of an autonomous vehicle system is not caused by external factors such as hacking or virus infection, but is caused by defects in the manufacturing process or defects in the design of the system, the manufacturer may be liable for product liability. The existing automobile insurance and product liability insurance systems will be effective until at least the commercialization of autonomous vehicles equipped with level 0 to 3. After the commercialization of the 4th level autonomous vehicle, there is a possibility that the car may be converted into a vehicle-use service that uses a common vehicle, such as public transportation. Therefore, when discussing the improvement of the legal system for autonomous vehicles, it is reasonable to consider the plan only for the level of 0~3, and then discuss the measures for the 4th level separately.