300 words needed https://www.npr.org/2013/09/13/215843842/when-will-driveless-ca

Question

300 words needed

https://www.npr.org/2013/09/13/215843842/when-will-driveless-cars-be-a-part-of-our-everyday-lives

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/03/08/173766352/if-a-driverless-car-crashes-whos-liable

Products liability is staple work of lawyers. The most wealthy among lawyers are those in mass tort litigation. There are huge awards out there and the tort system is arranged in such a way that the purpose of certain damages are to scare all companies to be active in quality assurances. Certain industries are plagued with products liability suits. Anything related to food or healthcare will always be heavily regulated and heavily punished for falling short of standards.

But the realities of much tort litigation is already known. We read about it in Grisham or see it on the news with hot McDonald's Coffee or Prius gas pedals that are sticking to the floor or Android phones that explode! What about new technology? How might new concepts change the laws or our lives?

Listen to the podcast above and discuss the terms merchantability, strict liability, disclaimer or Restatement(third) that companies dealing with driverless cars or other new technologies might be looking at in terms of RISK from placing one of these new products in the marketplace.

Explanation / Answer

1

Merchantability - the case for automated cars or machine-driven driverless cars is supported on following grounds

Automation has vastly improved safety in the airline industry and that it could do the same for driving.

2

Strict Liability - the question is about who is liable when a driverless car crashes revolves around following grounds

There is clearly a lack of clarity at this stage and difficult to envisage all possible scenarios and draft laws ahead of time. Hopefully, as the time comes nearer and automated cars become available after test-drive, product liability debate will be settled.

3

Disclaimer or Restatement

We may have a technology that would be societally very lucrative but for individual companies may be very unattractive because of liability reasons. Its way too early to know if this will happen with automated cars but while the  state legislators are working on an automated car bill, the government can step in and support may be by way of setting up a fund for redressal of lawsuits/liability so that there is an initiative from the side of manufacturers to go ahead and manufacture automated vehicles. It's important to figure it out because the faster we can get ourselves out of the driver's seat, likely the better.

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