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NHTSA Gives Green Light To Self-Driving Cars
New submitter tyme writes: Reuters reports that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told Google that it would recognize the artificial intelligence in a self-driving car as the "driver" (rather than any of the occupants). The letter also says that NHTSA will write safety rules for self-driving cars in the next six months, paving the way for deployment of self-driving cars in large numbers.
Actually, I've seen answers to all of those questions.
> If I own a self driving car, is my insurance insuring the AI as the driver?
Yes. Google has stated they will assume liability. Other companies pursuing this say the same.
> Is the driving record of that AI individual to my car, or to AI's of that software version ?
This one is actually easier. The insurance industry will have much better figures on the probability of having a claim to pay for the AI drivers, since all those drivers will drive the 'same'. They will be able to say that cars of model X get into .00001 accidents per car per year (or whatever) resulting in $2000 payouts per accident on average (or whatever) and thus will be expected to pay .00001 x $2000 x $INDUSTRY_MARKUP for insurance. Of course it gets a lot more complicated when you have to weigh in modifiers such as the weight of the vehicle (heavier cars cause more damage), the paint job (red cars get more tickets), the environment the car is in (urban cars get hit more), and etc.
> Can I sue the AI, or am I suing the AI manufacturer. Is the AI the car, or separate from the car?
The manufacturer gets sued. The manufacturer would keep insurance and lawyers for these lawsuits.
> am I suing Google or Ford ?
You sue whoever sold you the car. One throat to choke.