Volvo Will Accept Liability For Self-Driving Car Crashes (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Volvo has announced it will accept "full liability" for accidents when one of its cars is driving autonomously. It joins Mercedes and Google in this claim, hoping to convince regulators that it's worthwhile to allow testing of such vehicles on public roads. Volvo's CTO said, "Everybody is aware of the fact that driverless technology will never be perfect — one day there will be an accident. So the question becomes who is responsible and we think it's unrealistic to put that responsibility on our customers." Of course, this is limited to flaws in the self-driving system. If the driver does something inappropriate, or if another vehicle causes the accident, then they're still liable. It's also questionable how the courts would treat a promise for liability, but presumably this can be cleared up with agreements when customers start actually using the technology.

Comments

Re:Easy to do when backed by the PRC

[Anonymous Coward]

So many times I've heard this over the decades. So few times it has been supported by anything even resembling substantial evidence. So zero times has it turned out to be correct.

Oh, but I'm sure you're right. This time it's going to happen for sure. Real soon now, just you wait...

This guy should be a lawyer

[JustNiz]

>> Of course, this is limited to flaws in the self-driving system.

Oh your car chose to kill a kid on a bike instead of hit an old person crossing the road? Yeah sorry you're on your own since we arbitrarily choose to not identify that as a flaw in our system.

Re:This guy should be a lawyer

[khasim]

Oh your car chose to kill a kid on a bike instead of hit an old person crossing the road?

What? Why do you think that a car would be programmed to hit "obstacle B" when "obstacle A" appears in front of it?

Instead, wouldn't the car be programmed to avoid ALL obstacles and apply the brakes with maximum efficiency?

Re:This guy should be a lawyer

[Aighearach]

You erect the straw man "computers are infallible" to attempt to defeat the claim that computers react more quickly than humans. Fail.

Also, the thing you drove wasn't a commercially available self-driving car, it was a different thing, very primitive with a limited intended function that is different than a self-driving car. One could almost think you were comparing apples to oranges, but in this case it is more like comparing an apple to a cartoon orange sticker.

Re:After the 5th lawsuit ...

[bobbied]

No, the EULA on the software will be changed and THEN manufacturer liability will end when you accept the 30 page license after they push the next software upgrade Tuesday night.