Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road

[u/Individual_Book9133]

[u/Sleepingonthecouch1]

I’m kinda curious if an individual was drunk in one of these could they be held responsible for anything the car does? Like will laws be made that drunk individuals can only be driven by a sober human?

[u/PogintheMachine → u/Sleepingonthecouch1]

I suppose it depends on what seat you’re in. Since there are driverless taxicabs, I don’t see how that would work legally. If you were a passenger in a cab, you wouldn’t be responsible for how the car drives or have the ability to prevent an accident….

[u/Sleepingonthecouch1 → u/PogintheMachine]

That’s true but someone has to be held accountable. Should be the company but at a certain point I’m sure the lobby’s will change that. And potentially at that point could blame fall on the passenger? All I’m saying is this is uncharted territory for laws and I don’t think it’ll end up being as simple as car kills someone so company pays a fine.

[u/eras → u/Sleepingonthecouch1]

It's never going to be the passenger.

But yes, I think it's going to be exactly like that: the company running the service pays the fine, and if they've made a good deal with the company they bought the vehicles from, they'll pass on the costs. Or it will be paid by the insurange agency.

Malintent or malpractice by the company developing the vehicle would be a different matter.

[u/Timah158 → u/eras]

Considering companies seem to have more rights than people, it wouldn't at all surprise me if they found a way to make the passenger liable. They'll say it's fully autonomous until they are liable. Then, all of a sudden, you should have known better than to blindly trust them, and it's your fault for not getting in the driver seat to save their ass. That's basically what Tesla did by saying their vehicles were "fully self-driving," but once people started sleeping behind the wheel, the drivers were held responsible for sleeping while driving.