Public perception and autonomous vehicle liability

Abstract The deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the accompanying societal and economic benefits will greatly depend on how much liability AV firms will have to carry for accidents involving these vehicles, which in turn impacts their insurability and associated insurance premiums. Across three experiments ( N = 2677), we investigate whether accidents where the AV was not at fault could become an unexpected liability risk for AV firms, by exploring consumer perceptions of AV liability. We find that when such accidents occur, the not‐at‐fault vehicle becomes more salient to consumers when it is an AV. As a result, consumers are more likely to view as relevant counterfactuals in which the not‐at‐fault vehicle might have behaved differently to avoid or minimize damage from, the accident. This leads them to judge AV firms as more liable than both firms that make human‐driven vehicles and human drivers for damages when not at fault.