Ryan Calo at Concurring Opinions asks whether, if self-driving cars turn out to reduce overall road risk markedly but also create some new kinds of accidents, the makers will be ready for the public backlash (with its inevitable legal and legislative repercussions).
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Airbags reduced risks markedly but introduced new kinds of injuries.
As I remember the data of some years ago there were 2,000 saved lives over 10 years, but you had to reduce that for the 400 children who had their heads knocked off. There were roughly 400,000 traffic deaths over the same ten years. Airbags have been a disaster in cost/benefits terms.
Safety belts are terrific. When I was in my car-totaled accident in 2009, the belts tightened up and I walked away from the accident. The woman who ran in to me was saved by the collapsing front end of her car. The airbag might have helped her. She was OK too, but she let the ambulance folks talk her into going to the hospital for observation.
We’ve been told that Mercedes is going to sell a driverless car in 2013. But the car will be driverless for 10 seconds i.e. drivers will be allowed to have their hand off the steering wheel for a maximum of 10 seconds. As far as I read, the driver will still be liable if anything bad happens during the time he has his hands off the wheel.
For the following years, we can reasonably anticipate that these 10 seconds will become 20 then 30 seconds and even a minute. From here let’s ask a series of questions:
The biggest one being: “What is the limit from where drivers having an accident, when his car is in automated mode, will be able to attack the car manufacturer?”
* Who will decide what the limit is?
– car manufacturers, government or insurers?
* How do we prove that the accident happened while the car was in driverless mode?
– Do driverless cars need some airplane like black boxes?
http://driverless-cars.blogspot.fr/2013/01/who-will-be-liable-for-driverless-car.html