Likely the more apt word is liable. In law you split that into criminal and civil. Very unlikely there will be any criminal charge, hence no criminal liabilit

Likely the more apt word is liable. In law you split that into criminal and civil. Very unlikely there will be any criminal charge, hence no criminal liability but it’s possible. Civil liability is more interesting, but if the deceased’s estate brings suit it opens up a can of worms in the discovery process. Every internal communication, prior incident, etc... At the end of the day it’s not much different than any other vehicular fatality case, but there will be a defective product component (again nothing unheard of in the case of vehicular fatalities). At the end of the day the car will be insured for accidents, so we will probably learn more about the insurance coverage for self-driving cars.