Originally Posted by
sggoodri
Possibly, but the public's love/hate relationship with automation technology manufacturers will probably result in the legal requirement that robot drivers record all of their sensor and actuation data and provide it to crash investigators. That data should make determination of fault a more objective, scientific process.
Certainly, and I expect that the result will be to provide conclusive evidence that fault almost always lies with the human drivers. Once human-driven cars become a distinct minority there may well be a shift away from judicial leniency for crashes that are the result of momentary lapses of attention or judgement. There will be the feeling that the at-fault driver should really have chosen to let a robot do the driving. And judges and jury members (at least those with a newer car) will no longer have the empathetic feeling for the defendant that they could someday make a similar mistake.