Autonomous and Automated and Connected Cars—Oh My! First Generation Autonomous Cars in the Legal Ecosystem

Abstract

This Article considers the legal system that awaits the first fully autonomous passenger vehicles to reach consumer markets. These first generation autonomous cars will be an initial step beyond conventional, human-directed automobiles into a future in which ever more advanced vehicles, which do not need humans as drivers, will predominate. In a sense, the first generation of autonomous cars will play a transitional role, linking familiar, human-driven cars with advanced autonomous vehicles that may be configured very differently from the cars we know today.