Legal Influence Of Autonomous Vehicles

An examination of the legal liabilities surrounding the developing technology involved in autonomous vehicles in the United States of America

Driverless cars merely shift liability from the driver to the manufacturer as every accident raises suspicion of a product defect. Faced with a new vein of product liability lawsuits, courts will apply the same principles they do now with semi-autonomous systems in airplanes and ships, but it won't be sufficient. For instance, so far courts haven't included software in manufacturing defect claims because nothing tangible is manufactured. The failure to warn issue is also problematic, because some embedded technology requires no operation but can malfunction if an owner modifies the vehicle.

Over the years, the use of technology has improved drastically, it plays a major role in our lives. Everything surrounding us has some form of technology. With the power of technology, it may be able to replace the majority of human jobs in the near future. It is not surprising to hear that self-driving cars are being made. In the article “t he problem with self-driving cars could turn out to be humans”, it goes into depth about how self-driving cars will not have the mindset of human drivers. Skeptics believe that computerized cars will not have the knowledge and awareness of the numerous reckless drivers on the road. In the article, it stated that before computerized cars are released, programmers know that “teaching a car

The first article we will cover is Brian Fung’s article, “The big question about driverless cars that no one seems able to answer.” Fung deals with the large issue of liability with driverless cars. He focuses on how insurance companies will have to adjust as cars become increasingly more autonomous. Fung interviews several companies including State Farm, Liberty Mutual, and the District of Columbia Insurance Federation. He

It is a well-known fact that one of the leading killers in the United States is vehicle accidents. Most of these accidents are caused by user error, but there is a new potential culprit on the horizon, self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles). This topic is of particular importance because much of society will soon be faced with the decision of whether to support the use of these cars. This is demonstrated by technology and automotive companies investing large sums of money into the development of these self-driving vehicles. When I was first generating ideas for potential topics, I repeatedly fell on the topic of self-driving cars. I have always been curious about self-driving cars and the specific factors involved when creating them. I used

By 2020, the first fully autonomous vehicles are expected to deploy on America’s roadways. Consumers, however, are not sharing the same enthusiasm owned by self-driving proponents of autonomous vehicle technology. Indeed, three out of four Americans surveyed by AAA say that they are “afraid” to ride in a self-driving vehicle.

Another difficulty is who to blame in an accident. No one believes that the cars would be flawless. Would the driver be responsible, the manufacturer, the maker, or the software company? Most managing directors don’t have the answers yet. It would seem if there is no way to override that the manufacturer is the responsible party. Sorting out all the details “will take years and lots of legal wrangling, not to mention new regulations at national and international level.”

However self-driving cars have a number of issues to be addressed before it is being rolled for public usage. For example, self-driving cars will still need to be piloted by human drivers as the public feels much safer and also reliable due to the driver taking over when the cars malfunction. As shown in the Johannes Weyer, Robin D. Fink, Fabian Adelt (2015) research, “individuals wanted to have more choices to take control over their vehicles, and also some concerns regarding reliability of their vehicles”. Another issue is also the security of the self-driving car. Possibilities of it getting hacked is another hurdle. A virus could easily disrupt sensors or even cause disruptions to key infrastructural systems. As stated by Hickey (2012),

100 years ago, Gottlieb Daimler, the inventor of the automobiles, said “ The worldwide demand for automobiles will not exceed 1,000,000 particularly due to lack of drivers.” However, today humans have created more than 1 billion cars all over the Earth. Furthermore, we have created something that Daimler had never thought about, self-driving cars. It fascinates people's mind when you think of cars going to pick kids from school, taxi’s running without a driver, and your grandparents traveling from place to place without any trouble. And the great thing is that we are not far from these imaginations.

When one typically thinks about a self-driving car, it is not uncommon to have some reservations. A vehicle that can drive itself goes against pretty much every normal thought most people have when it comes to a multiple thousand-pound piece of machinery. However, that is simply a knee-jerk reaction and these self-driving vehicles have been proven to be safe. Todd Litman from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute found that “…self-driving cars will reduce crashes by 90%” (Litman, 2015). This is mostly due to removing human error from the equation, and these vehicles will go through some rigorous testing and many laws will be created and/or modified to protect riders within these autonomous vehicles. It will also be great for the economy, as not just the vehicle bodies will need to be made, but the onboard computer systems will also need to be created and maintained. Due to this, the positive effects from these self-driving vehicles will definitely outweigh that of the negative ones.

Autonomous technology has been slowly rising up in the market, beginning with automatic stop brakes to parking assists. The one thing technology researchers are trying to advance on is full-on, automatic driving with no manual backing. Although this technology is not on the market yet, it will be in the near future. Google specifically has started their own self-driving project six years ago, introducing their own line of autonomous vehicles they call Google Blobs. The main reason self-driving vehicles are in such a high demand to be made available for the public is because they are claimed to be a much safer alternative to human driving. More than thirty thousand people die each year in vehicle accidents and ninety percent of all car

Telegraph Media Group, Web. 10 Apr. 2016. This article said that there are certain tests that self-driving cars will have to pass. They include society’s reaction to the first major accident caused by driverless cars, the decision the car will make when a crash is unavoidable, and how we will determine how safe self-driving cars are. This article has helped me in my research because it explains how people do not trust driverless cars yet. It has shown me decisions one of these cars will have to make and how its decision will be

At the rate our technology develops, it’s difficult to keep up with the issues and concerns that result from our creations. Over the past few years, the development of the driverless car has moved closer to reality. In 2012, Google’s driverless car became street-legal in California, Florida, and Nevada. Autonomous vehicles could immensely benefit the lives of the elderly and disabled. They could also be helpful for individuals who are inebriated and unable to drive. Some organizations, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, anticipate advantages and less risks with the addition of these vehicles. Our current laws don’t address the adverse possibilities that autonomous vehicles can produce. How will human drivers interact with large numbers of driverless cars? In a collision, which party will take the blame? Who will pay for the damages and the possible medical bills? A vehicle that is not subjected to driver distractions and toxic influences can increase our future road safety. But at what cost?

Cohen describes how legislation will be involved if there are some mishappenings caused during the travel in autonomous car. He is a lawyer (Cohen, 2015, p.328) so it is obvious that he would have more knowledge about product liability law and the circumstances in which a plaintiff can get assistance. On the other hand, Shladover works in the technical industry so he states the software challenges that engineers are facing to make a perfect model which takes into consideration all the scenarios of driving cars. Thus, both the authors are aware of the difficulties faced by developers to make self driving car.

For the essay, I plan to investigate the ethics involving autonomous vehicles. In addition to exploring the trolley problem, I will also explore whether it is ethical for current self-driving vehicles, like Tesla’s, to be produced with incomplete technology that consumers can abuse. Ethics concerning self-driving cars is extremely relevant to engineers who need consider the implications of artificial intelligence driving our vehicles as the technology is being developed and before accidents happen. Although autonomous vehicles are somewhat of a novelty now, it is also relevant to the broader public, whom the majority will own some form of a self-driving car in the next 10 years.