Robots and the Legal Challenges They Bring
Technology has made our lives better in a lot of ways. For the most part it is positive growth and progress. There are new phases of technology, however, that are raising questions of liability and other legal matters. For example, consider a robot designed to assist the elderly in the bath tub. Who is responsible should the individual fall or drown? What if a self-driven car suddenly steers into a crowd of pedestrians? These are complex issues that face us as we grow increasingly dependent on technology.
Ryan Calo of Stanford Law School is suggesting we address these legal barriers now in order to prevent future tort reform from being more painful and preventing the U.S. from keeping pace with other countries like Japan and South Korea.
“I worry that in the absence of some good, up-front thought about the question of liability, we’ll have some high-profile cases that will turn the public against robots or chill innovation and make it less likely for engineers to go into the field and less likely for capital to flow in the area,” said M. Ryan Calo, a residential fellow at the Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.
And the consequence of a flood of lawsuits, he said, is that the United States will fall behind other countries – like Japan and South Korea – that are also at the forefront of personal robot technology, a field that some analysts expect to exceed $5 billion in annual sales by 2015.
“We’re going to need to think about how to immunize manufacturers from lawsuits in appropriate circumstances,” Calo said, adding that defense contractors are usually shielded from liability when the robots and machines they make for the military accidentally injure a soldier.
“If we don’t do that, we’re going to move too slowly in development,” Calo said. “When something goes wrong, people are going to go after the deep pockets of the manufacturer.”
It’s an interesting consideration for personal injury lawyers as well. For the clients who may suffer from future technology, it’s important to be prepared to help protect them. The day it becomes an issue may be here sooner than one might think.
