Who Is Going To Be Responsible When The First Driverless Fatality Occurs?

Google recently reported 11 minor accidents with its self-driving cars over six years and nearly two million miles driven -- and the company says that none of the scrapes were its fault. That sounds like a solid safety record. But when the first person gets killed because of a decision the Google robot car makes, who will be held responsible for that death?
 
Should they become popular (and if Carl Icahn and others are right, they will), robot cars will face this scenario a large number of times, as there are more than 5.5 million car accidents in the U.S. every year, resulting in nearly 33,000 deaths, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

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TheSteve - 5/20/2015 4:15:37 PM

+1 Boost

Who is at fault when any incident occurs in a fully autonomous vehicle. My bets are on the insurance companies, who will hold the driver responsible, because that's the easiest person to go after financially and jack up their premiums. You think they'll sue Google for imperfect software?

LexSucks - 5/20/2015 4:59:22 PM

-5 Boost

Black people.

TheSteve - 5/21/2015 11:08:10 AM

+1 Boost

I sincerely hope this is a poorly chosen reference to Cards Against Humanity.

PUGPROUD - 5/20/2015 7:36:27 PM

+3 Boost

current thinking is that each sale of an autonomous driven car will include a surcharge that will be put into an industry wide fund to settle all claims. Manufacturers will bear responsibility thru the collective self funded plan which will eventually cause conventional auto insurers to exit the market. (PS..based on above response I suggest site manager bar LexSucks from further participation on this site)