Comment Re: Ax problem (Score 1) 30
"If an automated delivery bot crashes into a window and causes damage, the owner / operator of the bot would be liable." - that is civil liability.
". If the owner crashed into 1000 windows over months after already being alerted that was happening, they would likely be criminally liable. " - No. This is a popular misconception. "Criminal negligence" is not a standalone crime, nor something you can append to an arbitrary statute. It must exist in the statute in question. In general, it only exists in statutes related to bodily harm. There is no such thing as negligent hacking in US criminal law.
As for your actual example: if the operator knows the bot has a bug where it occasionally swerves into windows, but keeps operating it because it's profitable, that is reckless disregard / gross negligence, a civil violation. It is a textbook example of a tort warranting punitive damages and likely an immediate injunction shutting down the fleet. It is not "criminal property damage" unless the locality specifically has created a criminal statute that specifically criminalizes negligent operation of unmanned vehicles.
I'll repeat, and you must understand this: "criminal negligence" is not a standalone law or something you can just tack into any arbitrary law. It MUST exist in the law in question. And in most laws, it does not exist.