What We’re Reading
Tesla wins bellwether trial over Autopilot car crash (Reuters, April 22, 2023)
In 2020, Justine Hsu brought a personal injury lawsuit against Tesla in a California state court, claiming that her Model S swerved into a curb while operating in Autopilot, causing the airbag to deploy “so violently it fractured [her] jaw, knocked out teeth, and caused nerve damage to her face.” On Friday, April 21, following a three-week trial, a jury returned a complete defense verdict for Tesla, finding that the “Autopilot feature did not fail in what appeared to be the first trial related to a crash involving the partially automated driving software.” Hsu was awarded none of the $3M in damages that she sought in the suit. Her attorney, Don Slavik (who has brought multiple actions against Tesla), “expressed disappointment.”
Tesla’s primary defense in the suit was that Hsu did not follow the user manual warnings against using Autopilot on city streets. Jurors apparently agreed that these warnings were sufficient, telling Reuters that “Tesla clearly warned that the partially automated driving software was not a self-piloted system, and that driver distraction was to blame.”
Georgetown Law professor Ed Walters called the verdict a “huge win” for Tesla, adding that “[t]his case should be a wakeup call to Tesla owners: they can’t over-rely on Autopilot, and they really need to be ready to take control and Tesla is not a self-driving system.”
The case docket can be accessed here (Case No. 20STCV18473). Additional reporting on the verdict from slightly different angles is available from Insurance Journal, Automotive News, Inside EVs, Fortune, and Marquette University Law School’s Faculty Blog.
California lawmakers looking to ban automated trucks with no safety driver (Overdrive, April 24, 2023)
After passing out of the California Assembly Transportation Committee, California Assembly Bill 316 recently withstood another test when it passed out of the state Committee on Communications and Conveyance.
As we have noted previously, the legislation, authored by California Assembly Members Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), and Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), would prohibit the operation of an autonomous vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or more on public roads for testing purposes, transporting goods, or transporting passengers without a human safety operator physically inside the vehicle at the time of operation.
In an attempt to protect human trucking jobs, the Teamsters and the California Labor Federation have lobbied heavily in favor of the legislation. Prior to the hearing, Randy Cammack, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42, commented that “[t]he public should not be treated as a lab rat for big corporations to test their technology.”
On the other side of the aisle, more than 55 business organizations and companies signed a letter opposing the bill. Per the letter: “AB 316 continues to be an effective ban on this life-saving technology with no pathway for Californians to benefit from autonomous trucks. ... Supporters of AB 316 have shown zero evidence that AV trucks are unsafe or will cause mass layoffs of truck drivers. This committee is being asked to take action based on nothing more than speculation.”
Notwithstanding the eventual outcome of the pending legislation, the California Department of Motor Vehicles is considering a regulatory framework that would allow for autonomous vehicles on California roadways without consent from the state legislature.
Ford Establishes New Division For AI & Autonomy (Clean Technica, April 20, 2023)
About a month ago, we featured an article about Ford’s new AI subsidiary for automated driving technology, Latitude AI. This more recent article is notable (and worth a read) for its in-depth look at the history of autonomous vehicle developments leading up to Ford’s work, going back to the 1939 World’s Fair where GM sponsored a “Futurama exhibit showing off carts controlled by transmitters placed in roadways.” Early V2I? Other historical harbingers of autonomous technology include experiments with pavement-embedded wires and radar-enabled “Roadarscope” in the 1950s and 1960s, and DARPA’s Autonomous Land driven Vehicle project in the 1980s and 1990s.
GM to end production of electric Chevy Bolt, its first mass-market EV, later this year (CNBC, April 25, 2023)
GM announced yesterday that it will stop production of its original and best-selling long-range EV, the Chevy Bolt. The Bolt also is currently the cheapest EV on the market. During an investor call, CEO Mary Barra explained that GM will retool the Bolt plant for production of electric trucks. A Chevy spokesperson added, “[w]hen the Chevrolet Bolt EV launched, it was a huge technical achievement and the first affordable EV, which set in motion GM’s all-electric future. ... Chevrolet will launch several new EVs later this year based on the Ultium platform in key segments, including the Silverado EV, Blazer EV and Equinox EV.”