AI-generated summary, not yet reviewed by Better Utah staff. Please consult the bill text.

Utah's rules for injuries and property damage caused by self-driving vehicles would change significantly under this bill, creating a specialized legal framework separate from ordinary product liability law. For crashes involving fully self-driving vehicles (level four or five automated systems operating without human control), injured people could bring a streamlined claim against the vehicle's owner or the company that dispatched it, but total recovery—including all damages, costs, and attorney fees—would be capped at $100,000, and this would become the exclusive remedy once used. For other product liability claims against the vehicle's manufacturer or software developer, the bill would cap pain-and-suffering and similar noneconomic damages at $1,000,000, ban punitive damages, and shield manufacturers and developers from ordinary negligence lawsuits entirely, limiting them to claims under this new framework or traditional product defect law. Manufacturers and developers would also gain a complete legal defense if their technology met "state of the art" standards at the time of manufacture or if their self-driving system, in the aggregate, causes fewer injuries than human drivers performing similar tasks. These new liability limits and defenses would automatically expire and require legislative review by July 2030.