"As an internationally recognized expert on the law of self-driving vehicles, Bryant Walker Smith is frequently asked to weigh in on legal issues related to automated driving. But the UofSC law professor’s expertise isn’t limited to cars and the people not driving them. His insights into tort law and product liability, and his broader interest in what he terms “the law of the newly possible,” are helping prepare USC law students for an evolving legal landscape.
Driverless cars and other emerging technologies present a range of new legal challenges, according to UofSC law professor Bryant Walker Smith.
Broadly speaking, what areas of law and technology are on your radar today?
Everyone is thinking about data and automation, and how the two combine. Specifically, I’m thinking about questions of trust and trustworthiness — earning trust and evaluating trustworthiness. I used to think that simply providing information was sufficient. That is, if a government agency released data, or a court released a judgement, or a company released information about the performance of a product, that was the extent of the obligation, and that in itself was sufficient for whatever public policy goals exist. I’ve realized that is not enough. Everybody needs to think about the way that information is used and received — and we need to understand that information as part of a narrative."
- Date Published:11/01/2017
- Original Publication:University of South Carolina