Currently, both insurance and the authorities are very clear about who is responsible for the accident in a car, and in general it is the driver of the car that causes the accident. But in the case of autonomous cars things get a bit more complicated.
Until now there is no fully and truly autonomous car circulating, and in the case of those that circulate with driving aids, the driver remains responsible in the event of an accident.
In Tesla cars with the Full Drive system that have caused some death by accident, the driver has also been responsible, although he did nothing at the wheel, and in some cases he was watching a video on his mobile .
Until now, no one had ruled on how to deal with these cases, but recently England has decreed that the manufacturers of autonomous cars will be responsible for the accidents that occur when they operate in autonomous mode. And this is an important novelty.
I suppose that they have done this thinking about the more or less widespread deployment of autonomous vehicles in the coming years. What I don't know is if this decision is going to help these cars in their deployment, or just the opposite.
****
Because if the manufacturer of a car is responsible for the accidents that car has throughout its life operating in autonomous mode, it will think twice before putting it on the market declaring that it is an autonomous car. Just the opposite of what Tesla is doing now with its cars.
This decision is good to ensure the safety of this type of car, and so that manufacturers do not happily launch messages that their cars are autonomous. Because the responsibility of the accidents could suppose important economic charges for them.
If other countries follow this example, the arrival of the autonomous car will be delayed, but when it does arrive, it will be with greater safety for passengers and pedestrians. Which will be good.
What is not clear to me is how the costs of this responsibility will be assumed, because someone has to pay them. Manufacturers will try to pass them on to “others” in some way, and competition will force them to adjust selling prices.
A possible solution may be that they sell us cars with "help" to make them autonomous, and not declare them as such. So that the driver remains responsible for what happens to "his car."
Time will tell.
EN 
ES_ES 