Original research article
Studia Iuridica

Criminal liability of self-driving vehicles under hungarian criminal law

2023, 100, No. 1

Máté Hodula

0009-0006-2458-4639

Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Law

DOI

10.31338/2544-3135.si.2024-100.9

Publication date

28.02.2024

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Social sciences

Discipline

law

Language of publication

English

Downloads

PDF 322 KB

Article

Number of views:399

Number of downloads:177

Crossref citations:0

Altmetric score:0

Abstract

As self-driving evolves day by day, the accidents attributed to such technology will increase as well. If the legal environment does not prepare for these cases, the ‘liabilityvacuum’ caused by the diverging court practices could lead to the rejection of the self-driving vehicles both by the consumers and the legislators. I am approaching the various questions posed by this technology from a continental standpoint, therefore the research examines the liability of the natural persons behind the technology. If we can provide possible answers to these issues, then the criminal liability of legal persons – an unfamiliar concept from the standpoint of the majority of the continental criminal law regimes – does not have to be applied to answer the central questions. If the national rules can determine the obligations of the natural persons travelling in a self-driving vehicle, their criminal liability can be decided accordingly and there is no need to create new offences.

Keywords:

mens rea,intent,negligence,artificial intelligence,AI,self-driving,autonomous vehicle,traffic offences

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