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Who Is Liable When a Self-Driving Car Crashes?
innocent_white_lamb writes "Current laws make the driver of a car responsible for any mayhem caused by that vehicle. But what happens when there is no driver? This article argues that the dream of a self-driving car is futile since the law requires that the driver is responsible for the operation of the vehicle. Therefore, even if a car is self-driving, you as the driver must stay alert and pay attention. No texting, no reading, no snoozing. So what's the point of a self-driving car if you can't relax or do something else while 'driving?'"
A self driving car would be less likely to rubberneck, or cause other issues relating to a human driver. Cars could in theory go faster. etc.
I would think the point would be that machines, once properly programmed, can be the worlds safest drivers...statistically. You, as a human, will still be responsible for taking over when the machine doesn't know what to do. But, for the other 99.5% of the time, the self-driving car will make the best decisions and always be completely alert.
Self-Driving cars, I believe, have the ability to drastically reduce deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents...one of the highest causes of death in the USA.
There's an industry that manages risk.
Regulation (e.g., insurance) always develops spontaneously, because there is a market for reducing chaos.
Current law not appropriate for future technology! News at 11!
If the car has a software issue and crashes then the software developer is at fault. If the car has a hardware problem then the hardware developer is at fault. If the car has a mechanical failure then then mechanical engineer is at fault and so on. Either developer the components / modules correctly in the first place or not at all. If modules / components have lifespans then just lock the car from starting once those lifespans have been reached and if you don't want to be held holding the torch when shit hits the fan then don't get involved from the get go. To spite this modern system of pass the buck and never accept ownership of the problem, someone caused the issue by not doing there job right to begin with and they should have to rectify it.
But with nothing to do behind the wheel 99% of the time your not going to be alert. Your going to be super bored. So when your supposed to take over you won't be prepared to do so.
The manufacturer will have an EULA which absolves them from guilt.
It won't be the people who sold it, because they'll also have a contract term which says they are absolved from guilt.
So, it will come down to the owner, who will be entirely dependent on the quality of the product, as delivered by two entities who have already said "not us".
So, if you privately buy an autonomous car, and it crashes, you will likely be on the hook for it. If you merely hire them (as in a Taxi), then I'm sure the people who rent them will also absolve themselves from guilt in some strange way -- likely through arms length 3rd parties who do the actual operation.
This won't be so much "buyer beware" as "everyone else on the roadway beware", because you'll have a vehicle driving around that if it crashes, there's a long line of people who have already made sure their asses are covered.
The lawyers for the companies making and selling these will have covered their asses before it ends up in the hands of anybody else.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Just from memory:
Montreal Metro is driven by autopiloting with someone in the cab for door management.
Vancouver Skyline doesn't even have a driver anywhere, it's all automated.
Several airports (Orlando was the last one I went to), have automated trains/monorails to shuffle people between terminals.
Most flights you take are done almost entirely on autopilot.
So far, it seems that mass transit is increasingly automated. So why is non-mass transit any different?
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
What? Simply wrong. You cause an accident, you pay. If your brakes fail, after you pay, you might have a civil case against your mechanic or car manufacturer.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The change will happen slowly, organically, over time. A self driving car will behave statistically as a very safe driver. Ownership of a self driving car should bestow upon you lower insurance rates. If the current insurance companies balk at the idea, the private market will take over and "self driving only" insurance companies will gladly take their place. Eventually, as more and more share of vehicles are self driving the size of the insurance industry will shrink significantly.
I see no reason to change the liability burden away from the "Driver". It may seem counter intuitive, but you are gaining economic advantage by using your self driving car. For that advantage, you accept the risks, and insure yourself against them. That said, operating a self driving car will/should carry significantly less risk and liability then driving yourself around does now.
That does not mean that the car makers are off the hook. Just like today, if a vehicle mechanically malfunctions in a way that the car maker is found responsible, the insurance company may attempt to subrogate the claim to them.
I was researching the appropriate statues in the Combined Annotated Statues of the Law of the State of (wherever) at the time the vehicle ran down six members of the State Supreme Court. I refer you to Evidence Photo #17, in which the rest of the car was full of lawbooks. your honor, this case should be considered pre-appealed, as it has already been presented to the Supreme Court, and I should be released on personal recognizance... .
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
There are two distinct things: One is that you are officially the driver even if the car drives itself, and you are responsible. But the whole point of a self driving car is that it is safer driving in a self-driving car with your eyes closed than in a non-self driving car with open eyes. You are responsible, but nobody is going to say "you are responsible because you used a self driving car without watching". They will say "you are responsible because your self-driving car caused the crash". Which will happen less often than if you drove yourself.
Right now you have to (a) watch out what you are doing and (b) pray that you don't have an accident. With a self driving car you don't need to watch out what you or the car are doing; you still have to pray that you don't have an accident.
And the whole idea of taking control in unexpected situations is nonsense. In the very best case, you would have to (1) do something to take control away from the computer and (2) react to the problem. In situations where there is enough time for that, the computer can handle things just fine. And people may think they are good in unexpected situations, but they are not.
Because as an American living in a multi-cultural society I do not want to share my resources with anyone who doesn't look like me, think like me, vote like me, or has a dissimilar amount of purchasing power. I prefer to associate only with those of my own socio-economic-ethnic background, because I'm sick and tired of having to pretend to get along with everyone else. I only do that for my own family, mind you. Everyone else is weird, stupid, and they all smell funny. And then you're asking me to subsidize the poor driving habits and behaviors of those who are inferior to me (or whom I believe are inferior, because obviously they -are- inferior to me)? And even worse, you're asking me to subsidize those who are superior to me (those damn bastards, they already have the world) and their fast hot sexy cars? Fuck them, and fuck diversity--I want my own damn monoculture because I'm tired of being uncomfortable around those who are different from me. So I want insurance and health care tailored to my particular socio-economic-ethnic background and damn all the rest to hell.
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
This meme of "self-driving cars will never work, because who gets sued?" keeps popping up, yet the idea of having liability insurance for personal possessions not under your direct control has been around for a long, long time. If someone visits your home and hurts himself while on your property, your homeowner's liability insurance covers you, even if you are not physically present. The insurance companies will learn to deal with self-driving vehicles, because there will be money to be made, and they will figure out a way to get into that market.
In any case, self-driving cars are absolutely inevitable for one major reason: our aging population. Senior citizens are going to demand the freedom of personal transportation, and anyone in the U.S. who tries to tell them "no" is going to be fighting the AARP, which has some of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington. Furthermore, consider citizens who are blind, or deaf, or epileptic. Why shouldn't they have the right to personal transportation? This will become a mandate for individual rights enforced by the federal government.
In any case, people who claim self-driving cars will never work keep ignoring the elephant in the room: 35,000 fatalities and 2.2 million injuries a year, and a cost of $250B due to car crashes - and that is just in the U.S. alone. We slaughter each other right and left, and just shrug our shoulders. I'd much rather trust a computerized driving system, even if it has rare failures, because statistically I'll still be much, much safer on the road.
Ultimately, this argument will all be moot. It reminds me very much about how some people railed against personal cell phones when they first began to appear. How did that work out? In thirty years, you'll have a whole generation of adults who have grown up without having spent 5 minutes of their lives behind the wheel. At that point self-driving cars win by default, because most people won't even know how to drive anymore. To them, knowing how to drive a car will be about as relevant as knowing how to saddle and ride a horse.
That's a distinction without a difference.
No. Insurance policies often have limits. If you have a $1M policy and you are found liable for a $5M judgement then your insurance pays $1M and you are personally responsible for $4M.
I'm not buying a self-driving car until I can sit in the back seat and drink a beer.
Kid-proof tablet..