The definitive EV thread. No spin. No BS., page-340

Pull your horns in a bit Trev. From someone with a lot of autonomous vehicle experience and knowledge.

Autonomous vehicles are very close and very good in the technology space.

HOWEVER, they are far from ideal when mixed with human piloted vehicles, or substandard road infrastructure and road furniture. Both of which they need to deal with during any transition to AVs.

In addition the main impediment to transition to AVs are the shortcomings in regulation, roadworthy certification and legal arenas. Especially in the area of liability in the event of vehicle incidents.

Scenario. Assuming you actually manage to get a UAV certified (somehow, against a non-existent technical standard, evaluation framework, certification authority). Then the vehicle encounters a suddenly appearing obstacle (human driven car, fallen branch etc). There is no time to stop. It has to make a decision to either:
- have an accident with the other car
- hit the tree branch
- turn left to mount the kerb and hit a kid on a bike
- turn right and go into a shop full of people.

Which option does it take and why?

Who has liability?
- Owner of the AV?
- You, in the AV?
- Council for not trimming the tree?
- The company who wrote the logic that decie which party you ran into?
- The car manufacturer?
- The certifying authority?
- The other car drive/owner?

Technology itself isn't the issue.