I think the legal problem is not so much about any technological defects with this system, but with the liability of the lead driver. If the lead driver makes some sort of error that causes the following motorists injury, is he liable? What if that error would have caused no injury were there no vehicles copying his movements? Or, say an oncoming (non-networked) vehicle veers into the lead driver's lane, resulting in the lead driver swerving off of the road. Conceivably (i.e., without this road train system), this accident could involve only this lead driver, but in the road train case, it involves several other motorists[1]. Is the oncoming vehicle liable for just the lead driver's injuries or for the entire caravan's injuries?; have the following motorists in some sense relinquished their right to seek damages by relinquishing their control as drivers?
[1] Even if the system has some sort of control that prevents the following cars from copying highly anomalous movements like swerving off the road, the following cars are due to proximity alone likely to be involved.
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I think the legal problem is not so much about any technological defects with this system, but with the liability of the lead driver. If the lead driver makes some sort of error that causes the following motorists injury, is he liable? What if that error would have caused no injury were there no vehicles copying his movements?
Or, say an oncoming (non-networked) vehicle veers into the lead driver's lane, resulting in the lead driver swerving off of the road. Conceivably (i.e., without this road train system), this accident could involve only this lead driver, but in the road train case, it involves several other motorists[1]. Is the oncoming vehicle liable for just the lead driver's injuries or for the entire caravan's injuries?; have the following motorists in some sense relinquished their right to seek damages by relinquishing their control as drivers?
[1] Even if the system has some sort of control that prevents the following cars from copying highly anomalous movements like swerving off the road, the following cars are due to proximity alone likely to be involved.