Bryant Walker Smith

Bryant Walker Smith is a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, a fellow at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS), and a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School who writes, speaks, and teaches on the legal and policy aspects of increasing automation. He is a member of the New York Bar and a former transportation engineer who has worked on infrastructure issues in the United States and throughout Europe. Bryant also chairs the Emerging Technology Law Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies and the planning task force for SAE International's On-Road Automated Vehicle Standards Committee. Prior to joining Stanford, he clerked for the Honorable Evan J. Wallach at the United States Court of International Trade. Bryant holds an LL.M. in international legal studies and a J.D. (cum laude) from New York University School of Law in addition to a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin. 

Bryant designed and taught the first-ever course on the legal aspects of autonomous driving, frequently lectures in both law and engineering courses, and routinely presents at major conferences, including the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, the Driverless Car Summit, and We Robot. This summer he will also welcome the Transportation Research Board's Vehicle Automation Workshop to Stanford. His white paper on the legality of self-driving vehicles and his law review article on managing autonomous travel demand were recently released, his autonomous driving blog is read within industry and government, and he is regularly interviewed for national media. Bryant's legal research addresses questions of authority, uncertainty, and boundary in disciplines ranging from tort law to administrative law to international economic law. 

High res photo of Bryant Walker Smith