The lawyers win? It's going to be a clown fiesta, (but everyone already knows this) I figure the people in the car will sue for emotional distress, The estate of the person killed will sue everyone from the intern to NTSB. I'd imagine in the end autonomous car code will have some sort of certification for "approved road use" look at Therac-25, or the trolley problem. The government would not even have to do it (but they will), I'm sure insurance will have a must use approved code or it's not on us clause. The other question is, what happens to the insurance companies? 1) They get homogenized into some sort of umbrella or home owners/renters insurance policy (your driving record does not matter if it's a bot) 2) Things keep the same, but insurance companies just pass the buck to the software provider. (optimistically maybe rates go down) 3) owning a car/non-autonomous driving car becomes bouquet and insurance is ultra expensive. 4) something else?
The ticket should go to the self driving car owner. The car owner should sort with car manufacturer who in turn should work the AI folks. Why can't we be more focus on the issue? Rather than veering of into politics. Focus is an edge for a successful trader.
Why car owner? It is not like raising a kid, I am not responsible for developing or building or teaching (programming) the self driving computer?
The self-driving car owner was not driving the car. So why would the ticket go to the owner of the car? It is like a car rental. If the driver of the rental gets a moving violation like running a red-light, why is the rental company liable for the ticket?
More likely putting the owner of that computer in jail unless the computer possesses enough intelligence that is capable of autonomous thoughts.