Bryant Walker Smith's blog

Automakers (including Tesla, Daimer, Ford, and GM) as well as automated-driving developers (including  Read more about Over-the-air updates and regulatory recalls

Cruise has now released a preliminary report by Quinn Emanuel, the law firm that the company hired to review its response to its infamous October 2023 crash in California. A few initial thoughts: Read more about On Cruise's Crash (and Quinn's Report)

A new article, written in 2022 and published in 2023 -- with pictures!

The article asks a leading AI tool for image generation to illustrate the facts of a leading law school case. It introduces machine learning generally, summarizes the seminal case of Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad, presents images that the tool created based on the facts as the majority and dissent recount them, and then translates this exercise into lessons for how lawyers and the law should think about AI. Read more about DALL-E Does Palsgraf

In early 2022 I was asked to write a brief statement on an academic vision for AI ethics. As this topic has become only more important in the year since, I thought I'd share my statement here:

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Ethics and AI Read more about An Academic Vision for AI Ethics

The Law Commission in the United Kingdom recently completed its massive study on domestic legal reform for automated driving. As the UK government works to implement the study’s thoughtful recommendations, the Commission’s experts are now turning to the topic of remote driving. I’m happy to offer a few thoughts.

First, “remote driving” encompasses a range of scenarios.

The remote human might be: Read more about On Remote Driving

Are you familiar with SAE J3016, the recommended practice that defines, among many other terms, the widely (mis)cited levels of driving automation? You can be! You could read one of the many purported (and often erroneous) summaries of it. You could read my short gloss on it. Or you could read the actual current document by downloading it for free from SAE's website. Go ahead. I'll wait. Read more about Deep in the Weeds of the Levels of Driving Automation Lurks an Ambiguous Minimal Risk Condition

Five years to the day after I criticized Uber for testing its self-proclaimed "self-driving" vehicles on California roads without complying with the testing requirements of California's automated driving law, I find myself criticizing Tesla for testing its self-proclaimed "full self-driving" vehicles on California roads without complying with the testing requirements of California's automated driving law. Read more about California's AV Testing Rules Apply to Tesla's "FSD"

Tesla can do better than its current public response to the recent fatal crash involving one of its vehicles. I would like to see more introspection, credibility, and nuance.

Introspection Read more about Tesla's Fatal Crash

Following Uber’s fatal crash in Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey is attracting attention for what he did and did not do. This is not surprising; as I noted in 2016, Arizona's governor decided to embrace Uber’s vision, for better or for worse. This discussion, however, tends to elide the important question of his actual legal authority. Read more about A sad irony for Governor Ducey after Uber's fatal crash

An automated vehicle in Uber’s fleet fatally struck a woman crossing a street in Arizona. A few points pending more information: Read more about Uber's Fatal Crash

My previous post on the House and Senate automated driving bills (HB 3388 and SB 1885) concluded by noting that, in addition to the federal government, states and the municipalities within them also play an important role in regulating road safety. Read more about The Senate’s automated driving bill could squash state authority

Bills being considered by Congress deserve our attention—but not our full attention. To wit: When it comes to safety-related regulation of automated driving, existing law is at least as important as the bills currently in Congress (HB 3388 and SB 1885). Read more about Congress’s automated driving bills are both more and less than they seem

How Governments Can Promote Automated Driving recommended that governments conduct "legal audits" to "identify and analyze every statute and regulation that could apply adversely or ambiguously to automated driving." Automated Vehicles Are Probably Legal in the United States attempted this nationwide, and now the authors of Georgia's HB 248 have produced a bill that (while not perfect) reflects a tho Read more about Legislative Shout Outs to Georgia and Virginia

Uber is testing its self-proclaimed “self-driving” vehicles on California roads without complying with the testing requirements of California’s automated driving law. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles says that Uber is breaking that law; Uber says it’s not. The DMV is correct. Read more about Uber vs. the law