This SAE EDGE Research Report explores the many legal issues raised by the advent
of automated vehicles. While promised to bring major changes to our lives, there
are significant legal challenges that have to be overcome before they can see
widespread use. A century’s worth of law and regulation were written with only
human drivers in mind, meaning they have to be amended before machines can take
the wheel. Everything from key federal safety regulations down to local parking
laws will have to shift in the face of AVs. This report undertakes an
examination of the AV laws of Nevada, California, Michigan, and Arizona, along
with two failed federal AV bills, to better understand how lawmakers have
approached the technology. States have traditionally regulated a great deal of
what happens on the road, but does that still make sense in a world with AVs?
Would the nascent AV industry be able to survive in a world with fifty potential
sets of rules? Given the current lack of a federal AV law, state-level
legislation can have a great deal of influence over the industry. Beyond
government regulation, what other areas of our legal system will have to adapt
to AVs? How do we assign liability for an accident in which the only actors were
machines? How do you give an AV a ticket? The questions are numerous and have
already captured the imagination of lawyers and lawmakers. This report will
explore a number of potential changes facing the legal system, the unsettled
aspects that derive from this new world, and the proposed solutions that have
been raised.
NOTE: SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key
issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the
mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE™ Research Reports is to stimulate
discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of
identified issues. SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are not intended to resolve the
challenges they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.