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Since 2004, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA1) has sponsored a series of "challenges" for robotic cars.These cars are true "robots," in the sense that they are autonomous vehicles where the on-board computer is driving; the cars are not controlled by humans via videolink.
In 2004 and 2005, the race course was in the California desert. In the first race, no car was able to complete the 150-mile course. A year later, five cars completed a slightly shorter, 132-mile, course.3 In 2007 (there was no event in 2006), the challenge was a 60-mile course set in an urban environment, complete with four-way stop signs, lanes that merge, and moving vehicle traffic.
Although none of the robotic cars collided with any of the obstacles on the course, two of the robot cars (from Cornell and MIT4) did collide with each other - albeit at low speed - as they both tried to merge into the same lane. And although the Cornell/MIT incident was in the context of a controlled experiment, the event raises a question: How would courts attribute liability if two robotic cars collided in the real world?
To the authors' knowledge, no realworld collision between robotic cars has occurred yet. Accordingly, no court has considered how liability would be determined. However, it is clear that the day a court must assess liability for robotic driving mistakes is fast approaching. BMW,5 VW, Toyota,6 and Lexus7 either now sell or plan to sell automobiles that will automatically parallel-park themselves.8 In 2006, BMW demonstrated an enhancement ofthat parking feature (not yet available to the public) that does not require the driver to remain in the car, which it expected to offer for sale by next year. And in late 2008, Nissan announced development of a new crash avoidance system for robotic cars that is based on the flight pattern of the bumblebee.10 Much greater automation appears to be coming in the relatively near future.
How a court will look at a tort caused by a robotic car is an exercise in prediction - always dangerous in the legal field. But by looking at the history of other "self-driven devices," it is possible to imagine the factors that a court might consider by analogy.
Rules and...