In last week’s post, we learned that a California jury ordered Tesla to pay $243M after a fatal accident involving its Autopilot system.
At the same time, Amazon’s subsidiary, Zoox, gets the green light from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to deploy its robotaxis without steering wheels or pedals.
➡️ Two announcements in the same week. Two visions of the future, but one observation: the law isn’t moving at the same speed on both sides of the Atlantic… and sometimes not even at the speed of the manufacturers themselves.
🇺🇸 In the United States: pragmatism first
The NHTSA has long tolerated manufacturers’ self-certification: it’s up to them to attest to the compliance of their autonomous vehicles. Zoox did this in 2022 before finding itself under investigation. Result in 2025: an official exemption via the Automated Vehicle Exemption Program.
👉 Legal translation:
- The door is open to experimentation, even if vehicles don’t meet all traditional safety standards.
- In case of an accident, the risk falls on manufacturers, who face massive litigation (e.g., Tesla).
- Liability therefore remains judicial and ex post, rather than legislative.
🇪🇺 In Europe: regulatory caution
The European Union advances through legislation:
- AI Act (2024): enhanced transparency and safety obligations for “high-risk” autonomous systems.
- Products Directive 2024/2853: revised to include AI, facilitating liability actions for victims.
- Parliament Resolution (2017): idea of “electronic personality” for robots, remained symbolic. 👉 Challenge: the EU wants to anticipate risks, but regulatory burden may slow experimentation. Operators await the final framework before mass deployment.
🇫🇷 In France: working with old law
No specific law, we fall back on the classics:
- Art. 1240 Civil Code (fault) and 1242 (liability of the keeper of the thing).
- Badinter Law 1985: automatic compensation for traffic accident victims. 👉 Problem: these regimes were designed for… human drivers. Who is the “keeper” of a vehicle without a steering wheel? The passenger? The manufacturer? The fleet operator? Case law will have to decide.
⚖️ Transnational challenges
1️⃣ Criminal liability: if a robotaxi kills, who will be prosecuted? The coder? The operator?
2️⃣ Data & privacy: these vehicles record everything (routes, faces, habits) → GDPR in EU, but the US framework is much more flexible.
3️⃣ Cybersecurity: ISO 21434 / UN R155 standards mandatory in Europe, but no strict federal equivalent in the US.
🚨 The competitive irony
Tesla, hampered by its lawsuits, retreats.
Amazon, via Zoox, accelerates with a factory planned to produce 10,000 robotaxis/year.
