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by kube-system 145 days ago
No, Tesla doesn’t assign you liability by making you sign something. The law makes the driver of a vehicle liable for the operation, as it always has.

My first sentence was to say that even if the law treats autonomous vehicles differently, Tesla doesn’t sell one.
1 comments
einpoklum 144 days ago
> The law makes the driver of a vehicle liable for the operation, as it always has.

So, either those Tesla's don't really self-drive (which may be the case, I don't know, but then the whole discussion is moot), or they do, in which case, the human wasn't the one driving and may thus avoid liability.

Then of course there is the possibility that the court might be convinced the car was being drive collaboratively by the human and the car/the computer, in which case Tesla and the human might share the liability. IANA(US)L though.

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kube-system 143 days ago
> either those Tesla's don't really self-drive

All Teslas are level 2 ADAS and require the human behind the the wheel to monitor the vehicle and intervene when necessary.

> or they do, in which case, the human wasn't the one driving and may thus avoid liability.

That is not legally true. Automation does not absolve someone from liability. Owners of a piece of machinery have liability just by being the owner and placing it into operation.

Forget about cars for a second -- we already have many products that are entirely automated already, for example: an elevator. If you own a building with an elevator, and it hurts someone, the building owner is absolutely going to be sued over it, and "oh, it's automated" isn't a get-out-of-court free card.

There are still responsibilities that the owner has: did they properly maintain it? were they aware of an issue but decided to operate it anyway? were they in a position to intervene and avoid the accident, but failed to do so?

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