DETROIT — Automakers and suppliers have already spent tens of billions developing driver assistance and autonomous driving capabilities, but the legal landscape surrounding those technologies is at best problematic — and at worst, "a hot mess," according to panelists Tuesday at the Automotive News Congress.
"I think the liability situation is a hot mess right now, but I think it's probably relatively straightforward to fix it if you look at it the right way," said Phil Koopman, a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University who has been working on the technology for more than 25 years. "But if we don't fix it, it's going to be a mess."
Problems range from technologies that are inaccurately or nebulously described, consumers who overestimate what their vehicles are capable of and regulatory challenges that have made true autonomous driving difficult to achieve in the real world, panelists said.