Law professor comments on self-driving cars

ASU Regents’ Professor Gary Marchant, faculty director of the College of Law’s Center for Law, Science & Innovation, was recently quoted in the New York Times article, “Collision in the Making Between Self-Driving Cars and How the World Works.”

The Jan. 23 article discusses the implications of autonomous vehicles, a topic at a recent conference held at Santa Clara University.

Marchant, who also spoke at the conference said, “Potential liabilities will be huge for the designers and manufacturers of autonomous vehicles.”

“Why would you even put money into developing it?” he asked. “I see this as a huge barrier to this technology unless there are some policy ways around it.”

Marchant, an ASU Lincoln Professor of Engineering Technologies, Law and Ethics, frequently lectures about the intersection of law and science at national and international conferences. He has authored more than 60 articles and book chapters on various issues relating to emerging technologies. Among other activities, he has served on two National Research Council committees, has been the principal investigator on several major grants, and has organized numerous academic conferences on law and science issues.