"In that regard, the liability system won’t have to change much to adapt to self-driving cars, says Bryant Walker Smith, assistant professor of the School of Law at the University of South Carolina. Thanks to a series of laws governing liability, called tort law, drivers can currently seek compensation from a manufacturer for a faulty airbag or a defective tire. “That is still true with automated driving—was the vehicle designed reasonably, and did it result in reasonable behavior?” Smith says.
If it’s not, then consumers have a case against the manufacturer. A few autonomous vehicle manufacturers, such as Google and Volvo, have made it clear that they will accept responsibility for any accidents in which their cars are at fault. But that’s not as groundbreaking as it might seem—it’s really only a “recognition of reality,” as Smith says, since the manufacturers would be held liable in court anyway. The announcements mostly serve to set consumers’ minds at ease."
- Date Published:06/28/2016
- Original Publication:Vocativ