The Real Problem with Driverless Cars

When Nevada made driverless cars legal in the state last year, we armchair futurists sat up a little straighter. All of a sudden a number of meandering philosophical questions about how our society would have to change to embrace such technology seemed quite a bit more urgent. This question seemed especially pressing: Driverless cars are safer than those piloted by humans, but how would we feel about deaths caused by machines rather than people?
In our post on the topic we considered the ethics of the situation, but we think this recent short piece from Popular Science nails the liability angle on the issue: the real question, as far as car manufacturers are concerned, is not whether the cars are fundamentally safer, but who will should take legal responsibility for the accidents:

When a company sells a car that truly drives itself, the responsibility will fall on its maker. “It’s accepted in our world that there will be a shift,” says Bryant Walker Smith, a legal fellow at Stanford University’s law school and engineering school who studies autonomous-vehicle law. “If there’s not a driver, there can’t be driver negligence. The result is a greater share of liability moving to manufacturers.”
The liability issues will make the adoption of the technology difficult, perhaps even impossible. In the 1970s, auto manufacturers hesitated over implementing airbags because of the threat of lawsuits in cases where someone might be injured in spite of the new technology. Over the years, airbags have been endlessly refined. They now account for a variety of passenger sizes and weights and come with detailed warnings about their dangers and limitations. Taking responsibility for every aspect of a moving vehicle, however—from what it sees to what it does—is far more complicated. It could be too much liability for any company to take on.

But if the benefit to public health is great enough, the federal government can sometimes get involved to grease the skids. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the case of driverless cars.
Read more at Popular Science.

Source;
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/04/28/the-real-problem-with-driverless-cars/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+80beats+%2880beats%29

Honda delivers first electric Fit

Torrance, California – Honda has delivered a 2013 Fit EV electric vehicle to the city of Torrance. The delivery is one of the first major steps in the Honda Electric Vehicle Demonstration Program and a prelude to the retail market launch of the Fit EV to customers in California and Oregon this summer.

The Fit was delivered in a ceremony to Torrance mayor Frank Scotto by Steve Center, vice-president of the environmental business development office at American Honda.

“This is an exciting day as we take another important step toward Honda’s comprehensive vision for reducing CO2 emissions, while at the same time advancing our relationship with the city of Torrance,” Center said. “Honda has a long history with electric vehicles starting with the introduction of our first battery electric car, the EV Plus, nearly 15 years ago.”

Honda and the city have worked together over the past year to gather input from residents about potential recharging station locations and have jointly participated in several public awareness events. The two will continue these initiatives and also study local government fleet usage of an electrified vehicle. The city will also receive a Honda plug-in hybrid for additional testing at a later date.

Honda unveiled the 2013 Fit EV at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show and plans to lease vehicles to its U.S. customers in the summer of 2012. Honda will also test the Fit EV with Google Inc. and Stanford University as part of its demonstration program.

Source;
http://www.autos.ca/general-news/honda-delivers-first-electric-fit