Blog post 3: Autonomous driving and the law

The first problem Musk or anyone who presents an autonomous car will encounter is the law. The Circle ran into this same issue when privacy laws were clearly breached but the company was able to discredit any politician who opposed them by uprooting some random, horrible knowledge about them and showing the public. It turned into the situation that if someone got in the way of what the Circle was trying to accomplish, they were publically shamed without it being clear that the Circle was the one who caused the damage. Obviously companies who introduce automated driving will not have the means to do this to government officials. In the United States, there is legislation regarding autonomous vehicles that has been passed starting in 2012 and several states have more pending for 2017. The laws being created this year are definitely giving autonomous cars more freedom to be on the roads in a few states but they are still very vague and limiting. For example, here is the summary of a pending bill in Alabama:

“Authorizes the operation of autonomous vehicles on public and private roads at certain testing sites, requires the testing and approval of autonomous technology prior to operation, requires each autonomous vehicle operated on a public and private road to carry a certain amount of insurance, requires a public or private entity operating autonomous technology to share certain safety data” (ncsl.com).

This explains how the vehicle will require several different points on a checklist before it can be on only certain roads. Companies trying to have automated cars in Alabama will clearly have to have their technology very prepared and would probably be declined if they were trying out a new coded feature if it has no clear evidence of being nearly 100 percent safe. This bill has potentially lofty stipulations for automated vehicles to be on the roads in Alabama but at least this state is in the early stages of accepting this new technology. Furthermore, since 2012, there have been 41 states that have considered making legislation regarding autonomous driving and as of 2017, 31 of those have introduced legislation to the Senate. Interestingly enough, the state of Arizona is one of two to have signed an executive order in 2015 to “undertake any necessary steps to support the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles on public roads within Arizona” (ncsl.org). Clearly the law is not rejecting the idea of having autonomous vehicles on the roads but it is definitely not a fast process so although companies are being granted more freedom to test their beta products, that is not the same as having the real product with people using that as their main form of transportation as we do with regular cars today. In other words, the law is not ready for autonomous driving in our society. And it is probably a good thing that the law is able to slow down the progress of autonomous vehicles because it will allow those companies to have a reason besides a deadline to be more deliberate and detailed with their products. If it is illegal to have their vehicles on the road then they can work on making it better before its grand release.