This is not as far-fetched as it may sound. The electronics in high-end cars already run 100 million lines of computer code—more than the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Self-driving cars developed by Google are becoming a regular sight around Silicon Valley. Google engineers describe automating driving as just another information problem: With enough sensors and detailed digital maps of roads, algorithms should be able to make computer-driven cars safer than human-driven cars.
The February issue of Wired magazine has an evocative description of a ride in a Google test car driving itself along a California highway. Tom Vanderbilt, author of the book “Traffic,” writes: “After a few minutes the idea of a computer-driven car seemed much less terrifying than the panorama of indecision, BlackBerry-fumbling, rule-flouting, and other vagaries of the humans around us—including the weaving driver who struggled to film us as he passed.”…
People should retain responsibility for their vehicles to ensure safety, but as cars become ever more automated, the current rules of liability would suppress innovation. For technology to advance, the legal and regulatory system will need to accept that driverless cars sound risky only compared with cars driven by error-prone humans. Among looming questions certain to be relished by plaintiff lawyers: If people aren’t driving, who will be liable for accidents? Car makers? Manufacturers of GPS hardware? Software companies?
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