A Look at the Legal Environment for Driverless Vehicles (2016)

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79 vehicles are designed, manufactured, sold, repaired, and used. Laws also establish how liability should be imposed for injuries caused by motor vehicles; the sorts of misconduct that will be punished as crimi- nal; as well as the nature of insurable risks with regard to driverless vehicles. The legal system also establishes appropriate uses of land for roads, high- ways, and other transportation infrastructure as well as how that infrastructure will be financed. This existing, historically determined, legal architec- ture will remain for a time. But the legal system will gradually adapt to how driverless vehicles operate. Driverless vehicle technologies appear to be trans- forming much more rapidly than the legal system, which tends to evolve slowly, to apply past prece- dents, and to modify those precedents only cau- tiously. The legal response to driverless vehicles has already begun with basic measures, such as laws that simply authorize the use of these vehicles in some states. More complex and far-reaching legal changes will evolve over time. As driverless vehicles grow more sophisticated and common, they will assuredly generate many novel issues of law. Ini- tially, the legal rules devised for driverless vehicles likely will be shaped by analogies to conventional vehicles. Over time, however, policymakers will come to better appreciate, and begin to focus on, the unique capacities of, and challenges presented by, driverless vehicles and the system that supports them. There is also a substantial likelihood that driver- less vehicles will produce some far-reaching changes in the law. Just as railroads provided the catalyst for new legal doctrines in the 19th century, the advent of driverless vehicles may produce substantial changes in the prevailing legal culture in the 21st century. Legal rules governing the artificial intelli- gence that operates driverless vehicles is an exam- ple of a novel area of law that will develop with regard to driverless vehicles. Once established within the law pertaining to driverless vehicles, these new rules may be extended to other settings and technology applications, until the rules become generally accepted legal principles. Overall, however, forecasts regarding the “likely” or optimal legal policy responses to driverless vehi- cles should be made only tentatively, and with deep appreciation of their inherent limits. About the only certainty associated with the legal environment for driverless vehicles is that these devices will chal- lenge the ingenuity of federal, state, and local policy- makers alike as they merge onto the nation’s roads. To the extent that driverless vehicle operation will depend on connected vehicle V2I communications, additional communications infrastructure will likely be required. For example, infrastructure will be required to download security certificates for the DSRC V2V system contemplated in NHTSA’s Con- nected Vehicles Readiness Study.642 If V2I becomes part of the DSRC program, additional infrastructure in the form of antennas, roadside processing, and com- munications units will be necessary.643 It has not yet been determined whether driverless vehicles will rely on V2V ad hoc communications, or whether V2I com- munications will become aspects of a new vehicle com- munications infrastructure for driverless vehicles. In the absence of connected vehicle technologies, or alongside them, sensor reflectors or beacons added to existing signage infrastructure are likely to enhance some driverless vehicle operations.644 If so, aside from strictly V2V communications, addi- tional electronic equipment such as controllers may need to be added to transportation infrastructure, probably along existing rights-of-way.645 Indeed a variety of infrastructure upgrades may enhance autonomous vehicle reliability, security, and safety. These infrastructure improvements would, of course, also exacerbate land use and environmental impacts of roadway infrastructure. Infrastructure improvements compatible with driverless vehicles will need to be installed depend- ing on the technologies used by future driverless vehicles. Existing electronic infrastructure is likely to require significant and costly improvements to facilitate the use, effectiveness, and safety of emerg- ing driverless vehicle technologies. X. CONCLUSION Driverless vehicles will bring many advantages over conventional vehicles. Enhanced safety, mobil- ity, convenience, and environmental benefits are among these improvements. At the same time, driv- erless vehicles also will present challenges to the legal system. Although the current legal environ- ment could probably accommodate driverless vehi- cles with relatively few alterations, changes in the legal system will be required with regard to such matters as insurance and regulatory requirements. As described in this report, an elaborate frame- work of legal rules has gradually grown up around transportation innovations, especially motor vehi- cles. Existing legal rules regulate how motor 642 NHTSA reAdiness rePorT, supra note 216. 643 Id. at 41–42. 644 Id. 645 Id.