Self-Driving Car Legality

Everyone has heard of the Google self-driving cars. They are quickly becoming a likely reality for the future of driving. Time Magazine says that we are on the brink of a driving “technological revolution,” and Toyota Believes it will have consumer-ready automated cars by 2019! But how soon do we expect to have non-human drivers be the standard, and how do we solve the multitude of legal problems that arise with these cars?

Toyota executives released a statement today saying that they will have “collision-prevention technology installed across its U.S. line-up, in both mainstream and luxury vehicles…” by 2017 (From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140907/AUTO0104/309070009#ixzz3CfyhSS00 ). Now this isn’t exactly the same as a Google car that is completely independent of human navigation, but it is the most logical step in the progression of the automated car. The most realistic prediction Toyota admits is that people will not trust the fully automated cars at first. It will take increments of computer influence piece by piece. In the Time piece Toyota said that they do not believe there will be a time in the near future in which we won’t require a human driver at all.

Part of the reason for not removing the driver entirely is legal. The biggest question that has been asked of these cars is who is liable in the instance of a crash? Now the Google car has never crashed in 300,000 miles of testing (except a minor fender-bender when a human was actually driving it) but if there was an instance in which the machine malfunctioned, is it the company who made the car’s fault, or the “co-pilot” or present human? This one issue would completely change the whole industry of car insurance. It might even eliminate the need for car insurance all-together.

Now there is the issue of whether or not a driver-less car is even legal to begin with. Only 3 states thus far have passed laws saying that the self-driving cars are legal. The federal government has not voted on the issue. In California Google lobbyists were clearly influential in gaining support for the law. Insurance companies on the other hand will fight tooth and nail to keep the self-driving car off the street.  

So this is how the stage is set for the future of the self-driving car. Being a millennial, I obviously have distrust in big corporations (especially insurance companies) and have a strong affinity for internet technology (especially with Google). So it’s obvious I’m pro self-driving car. If I was a betting man, I’d say that the value of this technology as a safety feature is too valuable to our society not to become main stream. There will be some push back (as there always is with anything new) but not even the powerful insurance companies can stop the self-driving car. 

http://partsblog.olathetoyota.com/2051/when-we-will-actually-see-self-driving-cars/
 http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/14/will-self-driving-cars-change-the-rules-of-the-road/