\"Man is a robot with defects.\" -Emile Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born Tech
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Question
"Man is a robot with defects." -Emile Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born
Technological advances are increasingly transforming our society, including the property and casualty insurance industry. One fascinating and dynamic area concerns the imminent use of self-driving automobiles and their effect on legal liability in auto accidents.
From one perspective, a car driven by a "robot" with artificial intelligence could be much safer than one driven by a human being. (Research shows that the error rate for prescription drugs filled by robots is much lower than the error rate for prescriptions filled by a traditional pharmacist.) These self-driving vehicles would be equipped with cameras, anticollision sensors, and powerful computer software and hardware devices that will take thousands of life-or-death decisions out of the hands of flawed, distracted Homo sapiens. Google and other companies are currently working on prototype driverless cars. These cars would be operated in a sense by a state-of-the-art robot.
Many legal experts argue that our existing laws are woefully inadequate to deal with the legal liability and moral responsibility for these upcoming driverless vehicles. One professor of criminal law, Gabriel Halevy at Ono Academic College in Israel, has written about this issue in his forthcoming book, When Robots Kill. Halevy argues that "we do not know how to treat these creatures."
Complications regarding legal liability will grow as autos become more autonomous. There are ways of assigning responsibility under current law, but these methods might make less sense as technology becomes more autonomous in vehicles. It is important to not think about autonomous autos in a binary way. As the years go by, cars will slowly become more autonomous, with human beings playing a more limited role in the overall operation of the vehicle. Autonomy in an automobile should be thought of as a spectrum, with myriad gray areas.
Let's jump ahead 15 years or so. After performing your due diligence, you purchase a self-operating car designed and built by a leading automobile manufacturer. Due to a major technical glitch in the robot's operating system, a horrific accident ensues. Who is the culpable party? Could you face some liability in not properly performing your due diligence or failing to perform the requisite maintenance on the vehicle? Conversely, some experts would argue that in a fully autonomous auto, the robot itself is liable. Could a robot with full autonomy be held civilly liable for its actions? Or the firm that manufactures it?
Some legal experts argue that determining the legal status of robots entails a prudent balancing act. Manufacturers and auto owners need to assume responsibility to take safety precautions with the increasingly smart autos. Yet manufacturers should not be so stymied with fear of lawsuits that they impede innovations.
So what do you think? Who should bear the legal liability of negligence in auto accidents pertaining to semiautonomous or autonomous autos? How would our laws have to be altered?
What are some other factors that might play into assigning this responsibility?
If you were CEO of an insurance whose main product is automobile insurance, would you consider this technology an opportunity or a threat?
Explanation / Answer
The question of determining the legal liability should first determine the cause of the accident in self driving automobiles.
In cases, where the car was defective in terms of a faulty software or a defective hardware, then the onus as well as the liability is that of the car manufacturing firm. For example, if there is a technical fault in the brake disks of a self driving car being made by Volkswagen, then the liability will be that of Volkswagen, since it has made a defective car.
However, if there is a tinkering attempted by the owner of the car, which has altered the initial technical configuration, then the owner will be held liable. For example, Mr. John bought a Volkswagen self driving car. He tinkered with the camera system, altering its initial operating program. In case of any accidents, he should be held liable.
The laws will have to be clearly altered and mad more comprehensive as well as relevant for the self driving cars. There should be different clauses for these cars. Even the calculation of insuarance premium, third party loss etc. will have to change.
If i were a CEO, then, on the face of it, this technology is an opportunity. There will be lower chances of accidents as humans are more error prone than robots. Humans can get fatigued and commit a small error while driving. This small error can prove fatal and result in a big accident. This will not happen with self driving cars. So, potentially, the technology can be an opportunity as the claim ratio for the insurance company will go down due to lower accidents and hence lower claims.
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