Europe seems to develop a more consumer-friendly law to hold manufacturers liable if the autonomous car doesn't function as advertised such as rear-ending a car in front in clear, optimal driving conditions and perfectly good weather.
However, in the US, most likely, it will protect autonomous vehicle manufacturers if consumers don't make noise right now.
From Tesla's standpoint, it's just like owning an automatic elevator.
Elevator used to be manually operated by an owner's employee called Elevator Operator or Liftman or Lift Attendant.
If something goes wrong, that employee might be fired and the owner can be held liable and covered by the insurance first. Then, it is up to the owner to go to court to get any compensation from the elevator manufacturer.
Now, elevators are no longer manually operated by an employee. They are all automatic. There's no Elevator Operator to be fired anymore but there's still an owner with insurance in case if there's an elevator accident.
Tesla believes that's the same with cars. Drivers can be held liable for now, but in the future, there's no more driver to hold them liable but there's still owners who own those autonomous vehicles.
Not just accidents but what about tickets for running red lights, rolling stop sign, overspeeding, wreckless Auto Lane Change... Those tickets will have no drivers to sign for but there's a license plate for redlight cameras and others to send to the owner of the car (not the car's manufacturer).
If consumers don't raise any noise, it'll be quite bad as it already happened in Dallas area when it's almost impossible to hold anyone liable as a driver sought about $2,600 damage compensation caused by a tiny autonomous food delivery vehicle.
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The driver tried to get the process going with the police but they doubt whether that autonomous food delivery vehicle a "vehicle" because of its size to fit the definition of the current law.
The city gave permission for that operation but gave her the silence treatment.
The only contact info is painted on the vehicle as:
starship.-asu.com
but its IP address is now invalid.
Eventually, through its main website, the company said it's not its fault.
Only when the driver got the TV News team involved, the company started to process the claim and eventually compensated the requested amount to the driver.
It's the law of the Wild Wild West right now in the US for Autonomous Vehicles Liability.
Consumers need to get involve and help to write up the law!