What Crashing Autonomous Cars Tell Us About the Future of Product Liability

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Originally published in Entrepreneur

By James Stengel

Welcome to the club, Waymo.

Uber has been there. Tesla has been there. And now a self-driving car from the Googleself-driving subsidiary has been involved in an accident on the open road. (Though, to be fair, in Waymo’s case the incident was far less serious than those other deadly crashes, and was caused not by Waymo’s software but instead a human driver who veered into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist.)

But, whatever the cause and severity, all of these cases have raised new questions about autonomous cars and the related liability issues.

This technology was supposed to make driving safer. But, will self-driving cars end up making our roads more dangerous? More importantly, who will be held responsible when the inevitable happens?

Read the full article at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/323886

James Stengel is Partner, Mass Torts and Product Liability at Orrick.