Author(s)

Linghan Zeng ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Law and Politics, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, 524000, Guangdong, China

Corresponding Author

Linghan Zeng

ABSTRACT

With the continuous development of China's autonomous vehicle industry, traditional tort liability allocation methods have become difficult to apply. The existing national and local classification standards struggle to correspond to appropriate liable subjects in practice. The current legislative approach, which prioritizes the driver or owner in the order of liability, is unreasonable. It increases the burden on consumers and reduces the likelihood of actual compensation being realized. At the same time, there is controversy regarding the subject of product liability, and the scope of producers remains unclear. Based on the realities of legal application, a new classification standard should be reconstructed by integrating theory with practice while adapting as closely as possible to the framework of existing laws. The order of liability should be changed so that the producer ranks first. It should be clarified that product liability for autonomous vehicles shall be borne by the producer, who is the sole subject in the identification system, thereby reasonably determining the liable subjects for torts involving autonomous motor vehicles.

KEYWORDS

Autonomous vehicles; tort liability; liable subjects; three-tier classification system

CITE THIS PAPER

Linghan Zeng. Construction of a Tort Liability Allocation System for Autonomous Vehicles from the Perspective of "Liable Subjects". Science of Law Journal (2026). Vol. 5, No. 2, 28-35. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.23977/law.2026.050205.

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