It’s coming. Â Once the self-driving cars hit the roads, you know these kinds of things are going to go into practice. Â There are teams of lawyers being rolled up on both sides, because as sure as there will be the occasional truly robot-related fatality, there will also be cases of “death by robot” (like death by cop, but targeting AI driven mechanics). Â There may be more legal precedents to draw on than we think (after all, we have been using robotics for assembly-lines for decades now) but the inclusion of the AI means a less clear-cut path of law.
Guidelines are already being considered over in the EU, I would presume that Japan already has their own set of guidelines as well, since they seem to be exploring even more radical uses for robots, like eldercare and healthcare for a rapidly aging population.
I’ve seen articles in The Economist and other places on this, here’s the direct link to the study findings (because I like to try to drill back to the source rather than echochamber).