Google's Autonomous Cars Face Legal, Practical Challenges

by Derek Kreindler

Published: January 23rd, 2012

google s autonomous cars face legal practical challenges

Google’s ~~nutty pseudo-utopian~~ autonomous car project faced a reality check at a legal symposium sponsored by the Law Review and High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. Among the challenges raised were the prospect of insuring such a car, and whether the car would be able to stop for law enforcement or construction workers.

While Google claims that their autonomous cars have driven more than 200,000 miles of accident-free driving, issues like whether police can pull over autonomous cars, as well as technological limitations with artificial intelligence, still remain as stumbling blocks. Google is throwing a lot of time and energy into having laws changed so that autonomous vehicles are road legal, but based on the concerns raised by experts, it looks like self-driving vehicles still have a long way to go before becoming viable.

#AutonomousCars #AutonomousVehicles #Google #GoogleCars #Insurance #Law #Legal

Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments

Join the conversation

5 of 53 comments

Herm on Jan 24, 2012

human controlled cars and planes are weapons, weapons are always regulated in our society.. luckily its becoming possible now.

Like Reply
Nikita on Jan 24, 2012

A modern Airbus or Boeing is fully capable of takeoff, landing and even taxi to the gate without human intervention. No one operates that way. The joke is that future airliners will have one pilot and a dog up front. The pilot's job is to feed the dog and the dog's job is to bite the pilot if he touches anything. We, as a society, still need someone to blame, and not just the engineers that programmed it, if people die. The tort side of law is simple, the owner, by its insurer, pays. The legal problem is on the criminal side if something really bad happens. I want an autonomous car before I reach the age where I can no longer drive.

Like Reply
- DXTR on Mar 03, 2012
  
  "A modern Airbus or Boeing is fully capable of takeoff, landing and even taxi to the gate without human intervention." Boeing commercial jets can not takeoff of taxi by themselves; pilots accomplish all takeoffs and taxi operations. They are capable of accomplishing an automatic landing, but not without human intervention: the aircraft must still be configured for landing (extending the flaps on schedule during deceleration, putting the landing gear down, and arming the speedbrake) and selection of the approach mode must be manually selected. If any problems are encountered during the approach and landing, the pilots must recognize them and take over manually. And problems do occur.
  
  Like
Barry Sweezey on Jan 28, 2012

Lawyers should get over themselves. "Oh, making the car autonomous is the easy part."

Like Reply
Shwabbie on Mar 18, 2012

I do not know when they will perfect the technology, laws or insurance issues... but I do know that it will be worth the wait. I just lost my 17 year old nephew to a car crash this weekend and after hearing that car crashes are the number one cause of death in the United States... all I know is that something needs to be done. I heard that over 90% of car accidents are 'Operator Error' as was the case in my nephews death... so if there is eventually a way to automate cars, I am all for it. btw... don't planes have 'Auto Pilot'???

Like Reply