It was inevitable. After many years and millions of miles driven by Google’s fleet of self-driving cars, one of them has finally caused an automobile accident. It was not a huge accident – the car was only moving at 2 mph when it struck a city bus in California. Nobody was hurt, except, perhaps, the self-driving car’s robot ego. People in the technology field and in public safety organizations have lauded Google’s self-driving cars for their impeccable safety record, but the record has been shattered. Though no one was hurt, this incident begs the question: What if someone was hurt due to a self-driving car? What if someone was killed by one? Liability for Self-Driving Cars Because self-driving cars are so new, we can only extrapolate current laws to determine who would be liable for an accident caused by the actions of a self-driving car. One argument says that the…
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