Between regulatory gaps and international experiments: this is what a self-driving car risks when it commits an infringement of the highway code.
A car parked illegally can be fined even if there is no one behind the wheel. Simple right? Just trace the license plate and therefore the owner. But what happens if a robotaxi runs a red light, makes a prohibited U-turn or, even worse, hits a pedestrian?
Although self-driving cars are now a widespread reality in large areas of the country, in the United States the answer is still surprisingly complicated, because much of the traffic regulations were written assuming that, somewhere, there is always a real driver.
In 2025, for example, the police in San Bruno, California, stopped a Waymo after a prohibited U-turn, but could not issue the normal fine precisely because there was no one in the cockpit to challenge it. With robotaxis the paradox is therefore evident, also because cars have learned to drive themselves faster than many highway codes have learned to sanction them.
Easy fines
For vehicle-related violations the problem is relatively simple. In San Francisco, in 2024 alone, Waymo accumulated 589 fines for illegal parking, for a total of over 65,000 dollars. In these cases the fine follows the license plate and is therefore paid by the owning company, but things change with the so-called moving violationsi.e. infringements committed while the vehicle is in motion. When an officer sees a robotaxi making a prohibited maneuver he can order it to stop, but then he must identify the legally responsible person, and it’s not that simple.
California has begun to fill this void by introducing notice of noncomplianceofficial reports recording violations of autonomous vehicles. They do not automatically lead to a fine or loss of points, but they accumulate and can be considered by the authority that grants the company permission to operate: too many infringements, especially if serious or repeated, can therefore contribute to the suspension or revocation of the authorization.
Divided Europe
And from us? In the European Union, a technical framework already exists that allows the approval of even fully automated vehicles, including level 4 systems such as robotaxis and driverless shuttles. The rules require that the system knows how to control steering, accelerator and brakes and that its decisions are compatible with the traffic rules of the country in which it operates. But approval is one thing, liability for an infringement is another, and the latter continues to depend largely on national laws.
The European Commission itself recognizes that today the picture is still fragmented and that only some Member States have road regulations capable of fully regulating the circulation of autonomous vehicles. For level 2 assistance systems, however, there is no doubt: the driver remains responsible even when the car steers or accelerates on its own and must continue to monitor the road and vehicle even if his vehicle would allow him not to keep his hands on the steering wheel. The real issue therefore arises only when the driver really disappears from the equation.
Italian case
In Italy, at least for now, this paradox cannot yet occur because the legislation allows autonomous driving on public roads only in the context of experiments authorized by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
And during these tests there must be on board a supervisorthat is, a qualified person capable of immediately taking control of the vehicle, who remains responsible for the vehicle both when it is driven manually and when it proceeds in automatic mode. Furthermore, for a normal fine, the Highway Code already provides that the owner of the vehicle is jointly obliged to pay with the person who committed the infringement.
However, it would be more difficult to apply strictly personal sanctions, such as the deduction of points, because in our country the law presupposes that a driver with a license must be identified.
In short, as long as there is a human supervisor on our roads, the problem will remain manageable with the existing rules, but when cars actually arrive without anyone on board, the Code will also have to answer a question that until a few years ago seemed like science fiction: if an algorithm makes a mistake, who gets the fine?
