De Chiara, AlessandroElizalde Salazar, IdoiaManna, EsterSegura Moreiras, Adrián2022-12-202022-12-202021De Chiara A, Elizalde I, Manna E, Segura-Moreiras A. Car accidents in the age of robots. International Review of Law and Economics. 2021 Dec;68:106022. DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2021.1060220144-8188http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55191In this paper, we compare liability rules in a world where human-driven and fully-autonomous cars coexist. We develop a model where a manufacturer can invest to improve the safety of autonomous cars. Human drivers may decide to purchase a fully-autonomous car to save precaution costs to avoid road accidents and shift liability to the car manufacturer. As compared to the negligence rule, a strict liability regime on both human drivers and car manufacturers is proved to be a superior policy. In particular, strict liability leads to more efficient R&D investments to enhance the benefits of the technology and favors the adoption of fully-autonomous cars. We also recommend that users of fully-autonomous cars make a technology-dependent payment to a third-party if there is an accident to discipline their activity levels.application/pdfeng© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.irle.2021.106022Autonomous vehiclesInvestment problemLiability rulesTortsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess