00:00Today on Forbes, Elon Musk's RoboTaxi dream could be a liability nightmare for Tesla and
00:06its owners.
00:09Elon Musk's tightly controlled Tesla RoboTaxi pilot program in Austin has managed to go
00:14weeks without a major accident.
00:16But on June 24, a Model Y and its test fleet dinged a parked Toyota Camry outside a popular
00:22pizza parlor.
00:23It was a minor thing, but what if the car had hit a person instead?
00:28Bullish Tesla investors are counting on Musk's RoboTaxi dream to create a vast new revenue
00:33stream from autonomous rides.
00:36That may happen, but it also creates a risk the company hasn't faced before — legal
00:41liability from self-driving tech failures.
00:45Tesla owners hoping to make money Airbnb-ing their cars in a company-run RoboTaxi ride service
00:50that Musk has touted for years could be on the hook as well.
00:55At Tesla's shareholder meeting last June, Musk said, quote,
00:59There will be some cars that Tesla owns itself.
01:02But then for the fleet that is owned by our customers, it will be like an Airbnb thing.
01:06You can add or subtract your car to the fleet whenever you want.
01:10Just one tap on the Tesla app and you can add your car to the fleet and it makes money
01:13for you while you're gone.
01:16But Tesla owners hoping to cash in have more to consider.
01:20Mike Nelson, an attorney who says he's been involved in over a thousand Tesla-related
01:24accident cases and whose startup, Quantiv Risk, analyzes sensor and computer data from crashes,
01:31said, quote,
01:32In addition to suing Tesla in future RoboTaxi accident cases, he sees lawyers coming after
01:42Tesla owners.
01:44He said, quote,
01:45Assuming Tesla's RoboTaxi tech is truly ready for commercial use, which many autonomous vehicle
01:59experts doubt, the pitch by the world's wealthiest person to owners to monetize their vehicles
02:05may excite some.
02:06It could also prove to be the latest in an impressive cascade of ill-starred Musk pipe
02:11dreams, Hyperloops, solar roofs, $2 trillion in government doge cuts.
02:16And while Musk has been vocal about how game-changing Tesla's RoboTaxi plans are for the company's
02:21future, particularly as its EV sales stall, he said little about how it will actually run.
02:29Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who studies autonomous vehicle
02:33technology, said, quote,
02:35The big question is whether Tesla will provide a support organization as part of the RoboTaxi
02:40network arrangement.
02:42If a Tesla RoboTaxi is involved in a crash, does the owner have to get out of bed at 3
02:46a.m. and drive across town to the scene to talk to the police?
02:51Waymo, the leading RoboTaxi operator, has a simple policy.
02:55The company told Forbes that in the event of an accident in which it's deemed to have
02:59responsibility, it would assume liability.
03:02It also provides medical payment coverage to riders, regardless of who's at fault in
03:07a collision.
03:09William Wyden, a law professor at the University of Miami who studies and writes about legal
03:13implications for autonomous vehicles, said that's the right approach.
03:17But the bigger question is, quote, What is the standard for liability with this technology?
03:24In the case of RoboTaxi's, the technology is running ahead of laws and regulations for
03:28how to deal with them when things go wrong.
03:31Wyden argues that we need a new nationwide standard for AI software.
03:35When accidents happen, we should treat it exactly like a human.
03:39Wyden said, quote, Liabilities should be on the manufacturer or the designer, and the standard
03:44for liability should be the same as for a human.
03:48In court, he said, quote, You'd reconstruct the accident for a jury.
03:52That's who we trust with an ordinary fender bender to judge whether a human driver behaved
03:56reasonably or not.
03:58Have them do exactly the same thing with a computer driver.
04:02For full coverage, watch our Forbes Talks video interview with Alan Owensman, and check
04:07out his piece on Forbes.com.
04:10This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:13Thanks for tuning in.
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