Comments on: Stanford Robotics and the Law Conference call for papers http://boingboing.net/2013/01/15/stanford-robotics-and-the-law.html Brain candy for Happy Mutants Sun, 19 May 2013 21:13:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Chesterfield http://boingboing.net/2013/01/15/stanford-robotics-and-the-law.html#comment-1628774 Chesterfield Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:54:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=205846#comment-1628774 I'd love to see some discussion around legal policy with respect to self-driving cars. It's clear that self-driving cars of the type that Google is developing could save thousands of lives and deliver amazing gains in energy efficiency.  However, as soon as a glitch contributes to a death, lawsuits will be flying. What company would want to commercialize this technology when it's guaranteed to end up in court? If telephone companies can get immunity from lawsuits in the name of national security, then perhaps self-driving car manufacturers should be immune from lawsuits in the name of public safety. I’d love to see some discussion around legal policy with respect to self-driving cars. It’s clear that self-driving cars of the type that Google is developing could save thousands of lives and deliver amazing gains in energy efficiency. 

However, as soon as a glitch contributes to a death, lawsuits will be flying. What company would want to commercialize this technology when it’s guaranteed to end up in court?

If telephone companies can get immunity from lawsuits in the name of national security, then perhaps self-driving car manufacturers should be immune from lawsuits in the name of public safety.

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