A brave new world: Can robots be sued?

Case study: Some car makers, including Volvo, Google, and Mercedes, have already said they would accept full liability for their vehicles' actions when they are in autonomous mode. Even without such a pledge, it's likely that manufacturers would end up paying if their autonomous car caused harm. If the offending car were considered a defective product, its maker could be held liable under strict product-design standards, potentially leading to class-action lawsuits and expensive product recalls -- like Takata faced for its dangerous airbags. Another possibility: Going deeper into the system, the AI itself could be held responsible, according to Gabriel Hallevy, a law professor at Ono Academic College in Israel, who wrote a book about AI and criminal negligence. That still means its programmer or manufacturer could be found negligent as well, or even accomplice to a crime.