Rutgers hosts guest lecture on self-driving cars, regulations
On Monday, the Rutgers Professional Science Master's Program hosted guest lecturers Ronald Hedges and Ronald Levine to address legal and ethical issues arising from using autonomous vehicles, according to the event release.
Self-driving automobiles powered by artificial intelligence are currently used among drivers today. With ambiguous laws and regulations surrounding autonomous vehicles, the presentation sought to investigate the future legislative problems AI may incur, according to the release.
The event began by showing an NBC segment about the safety concerns surrounding driverless taxis. Levine commented that these kinds of broadcasts will stunt the growth of the autonomous vehicle industry.
Additionally, he said there has been significant pushback to driverless cars and trucks in California after new legislation was passed allowing more driverless cars on the road.
Levine said the U.S. Department of Defense initially promoted self-driving vehicles and the U.S. has encouraged more legislation for these vehicles over the years due to China and other countries making progress in the field of AI.
"According to a statistic I picked up, the market in the U.S. right now for autonomous vehicles is $36 billion, which was amazing," he said. "And they're projecting that the worldwide market for autonomous vehicles, by 2032, is going to be ($2.4 trillion)."
Levine said autonomous vehicle use is currently in its experimental phase regarding human use. Individuals cannot relax while their car drives them, and there is currently no federal law addressing these types of vehicles being on the road, he said.
Levine said some of the main uses of driverless vehicles are deliveries of household goods, food and packages. Autonomous vehicles would also be useful in urban areas where many do not have access to their own vehicle, he said.
"Whatever happens in this country with autonomous vehicles, there has to be a national law," Levine said. "From all my courses, one of the big takeaways is it's very, very hard to regulate any consumer product on a state level."
Hedges said one of the main questions surrounding autonomous vehicles is where liability falls in the event of a crash. He went on to say that in New Jersey, current laws state that a program is not a product. Consequently, no one can go after the program or programmer if that program fails.
He also said he wonders if it will be possible for a vehicle to be intentionally, or through negligence, programmed to act unlawfully.
"The law is going to have to be rewritten because right now, in most vehicle laws, it's usually the owner and the driver over the liable parties," Levine said of the issue. "Occasionally, (the law will target) the manufacturer, but in most situations that I've dealt with in my career when there's an auto accident, they don't bring in the manufacturer unless there's something really, really wrong with the vehicle."
Following the discussion of crash implications, Hedges said he sees these vehicles as potential privacy concerns. Some vehicles may intake biometric information and track where users go. He said the main problem he sees is if people will be able to travel from one place to another without the fear of being recorded.
Levine quoted the book "Elon Musk" by Walter Isaacson and said that Tesla vehicles, which have numerous interior and exterior cameras, are a "gold mine" for data collection. He said data from daily life is an essential detail for AI efficacy.
"You need to understand, in whatever industry you're in, the regulations — open the books, talk to the legal department, know what's going on," Levine said. "If we're going to get this off the ground and have autonomous vehicles, (there needs) to be certain parameters, either from the government or among the manufacturers themselves, to set forth what the standards are."
