Criminal Liability and the Future of Autonomous Vehicles Comparative Study of Legal Responsibility

Autonomous vehicles are transforming the relationship between humans, machines, and the law. As vehicles increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to perceive their surroundings, make decisions, and navigate roads, a fundamental legal question emerges: when an autonomous vehicle causes harm, who should bear criminal responsibility? When AI Takes the Wheel examines this complex question through a comparative legal framework, exploring how traditional concepts of criminal liability can respond to increasingly autonomous driving systems. The book considers the legal responsibility of drivers, vehicle owners, manufacturers, software developers, technology providers, and other actors involved in the design, deployment, and operation of autonomous vehicles. Moving beyond the traditional assumption that a human driver is always at the centre of road-traffic responsibility, the study examines how concepts such as negligence, causation, foreseeability, duty of care, and attribution of responsibility may operate when critical driving decisions are made by artificial intelligence. Through a comparative and jurisdiction-focused approach, the book explores the challenges created by differences in national legal systems and regulatory frameworks. It also considers the difficulties of assigning responsibility where an AI system behaves unpredictably, where software and hardware interact, or where responsibility is distributed among multiple human and corporate actors. Rather than treating autonomous vehicles solely as a technological innovation, this book approaches them as a developing legal challenge at the intersection of criminal law, artificial intelligence, transportation law, product responsibility, and emerging technology regulation.