Plenty of blame to go around: Attributions of responsibility in a fatal autonomous vehicle accident

Autonomous vehicles (AV) promise a reduction in the number of deadly traffic accidents. However, should accidents occur, attributions of responsibility are complicated by the fact that there is a human agent (driver) and a non-human agent (AV), and thus responsibility is likely shared between parties. In two studies, participants (n = 310 and n = 260) read a vignette modeled after an actual lethal AV accident. Across four experimental conditions, participants were told that the human driver either needed to maintain oversight of the AV; did not need to maintain oversight of the AV; did not specify whether the human needed to maintain oversight of the AV; or the artificial intelligence was turned off and the human driver was fully in control. Participants assigned responsibility to the human driver, the AV company, the pedestrian, and an act of God, and determined whether the human driver and company CEO should be held criminally responsible in court. Consistent with previous research, the human driver was held most responsible regardless of oversight condition. However, companies were not absolved of responsibility, even when they required the human driver to maintain oversight of the AV. Implications of these findings for the introduction and legal regulation of AVs are discussed.