Who's to Blame When a Driverless Car Has an Accident?

The news that an Uber self-driving vehicle has killed a pedestrian in the US has made headlines around the world.

It's a reminder that the era of self-driving cars is fast approaching. Decades of research into advanced sensors, mapping, navigation, and control methods have now come to fruition and autonomous cars are starting to hit the roads in pilot trials.

But partial or full autonomy raises the question of who is to blame in the case of an accident involving a self-driving car?