Uber announced that they're suspending the
testing of the self-driving vehicles after
one of those cars killed a pedestrian this
week.
Now the company's facing both huge not only
political backlash, public backlash, and potentially
devastating legal problems.
This case, to me, this is gonna open a complete
door for reanalysis of something that we've
taken for granted, what happens in an auto
accident?
Who's responsible.
Here's what I'm saying.
Somebody runs into the back of you, it may
cause injury.
You go after the driver because their clutch.
They weren't paying attention.
They hurt somebody in the vehicle.
You have a personal injury suit.
Here, you have a vehicle that's owned by Uber.
I got that.
You know you've got to pursue against Uber,
but what if this vehicle's owned by an individual?
The individual's not driving it, not in control
of it.
But the car nevertheless, we're looking at
this five years from now, runs into somebody.
Kills somebody.
Is it a product defect case?
It might be both.
It could be both.
It might be dangerous instrumentality where
the owner's responsible, and you've got a
product case.
It might end up being both.
I'll tell you what.
I think we need to let the facts develop on
this case a little bit, because the lady that
got hit walked outside of the crosswalk.
She walked outside of the crosswalk.
Is it any different than if you were driving?
Maybe you were driving.
If you're driving, you're gonna stop.
That's what I'm thinking.
Now before we throw them under the bus-
I'm not throwing them under the bus.
I'm just saying, is I look at the case and
I figure out how weird this is gonna be in
the future.
This driverless car just doesn't-
They're called autonomous vehicles.
And actually with somebody behind the wheel.
I'm not exactly sure what they were doing.
Exactly.
It's autonomous vehicles.
Were they eating pizza?
We don't know.
They're driving.
They're reading a book.
That's part of it.
Here's where I'm headed with this.
As time goes on, five years from now there's
gonna have to be an analysis.
Car runs into another car.
The autonomous vehicle, who's responsible?
Is the guy eating the pizza?
He's in the passenger seat.
Where is he?
What is the responsibility?
Now here's where it ... Let me make a prediction,
okay.
Here's the prediction.
All of these cats that are out there, 1-800-automobile-accident,
give me a call.
Fender bender, give me a call.
These billboard lawyers, these lawyers are
gonna be out of business because what's gonna
happen is you're gonna have immunity.
The government is going ... In order for this,
the autonomous vehicle thing to really take
off, they're gonna have to have some kind
of immunity protection.
That's my prediction.
What do you think?
Is that an overstatement?
We always see where technology-
Well, you heard it here.
You heard it here first.
That's what happens.
You heard it here first.
I just can't see this working.
I cannot see-
From a legal, I see the automobile working.
I really do see the technology working.
No, I can't see that we're gonna give these
companies immunity in the legal system.
If you have the money and the capability to
run it, you're responsible for the vehicle,
just like I am not if one of my kids gets
in a car wreck.
Look, the Senate ... This is a Congress that
gave guns total immunity.
You can't sue gun manufacturers for almost
anything.
I promise you.
If this moves forward and they want to up
the technology here, we're gonna see the auto
industry giving ... They're gonna be given
immunity.
And these people that are in the business
of fender benders, I think they're gonna be
out of business.
At any rate, this case is one that Uber better
pay attention to because the ramifications
are broad, not just politically, but socially
and legally in this case.
