Saturday, March 31, 2018

Comment on issues and unanswered questions related to autonomous cars

I am sure you have heard by now about an Uber autonomous car killed a pedestrian in Arizona.  The accident was called the first fatality caused by such a vehicle.  At the time Uber was experimenting with autonomous cars in Arizona.  Soon after the accident, the company announced it was terminating the experiment - at least for now.

I have blogged about issues related to autonomous cars before and about some of the possible questions that we will inevitably have to deal with in the near future as accidents begin to happen.  Go here, here and here.

Now comes news that Uber confidentially compensated the family of the pedestrian killed by its robot car.  That was quick and it evidently prevented the publicity that would have resulted from discovery if a lawsuit had been filed. 

But the issues and unanswered questions remain.  This might have been the first pedestrian death caused by an autonomous car, but unfortunately, it is not likely to be be the last.

Which brings me to the comment posted at The Pop Tort addressing some of the issues and questions related to this new topic in Tort law.  You should go and read it here.

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