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Comment by rkagerer | Hacker News Reader

Question: If I swerve into the wrong lane because my non-self-driving car malfunctions and the front wheels turn left when I turn the steering wheel right, would I be held responsible?

I'm kind of surprised the onus isn't on the operator, with an avenue to sue the manufacturer in cases where liability should follow through.

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There's not many cars with steer-by-wire [0]. IF the steer-by-wire malfunctions, it's the same kind of issue as if the brakes were to malfunction, or the axle came undone and the wheels spun off the car. Whether that failure can be attributed to you or not (e.g. you neglected maintenance) would need expert witnesses to assess.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steer-by-wire

US and most other places will put all blame on conductor, who can later start other procedures to move it to another party (manufacturer, bad repair, etc)

This is why cars should have flight recorders like planes and the software in cars must be independently verified.

Presumably it would only get to that point were there fatalities or serious injury involved. In general I’d expect the cop to issue a citation and shrug and say take it up with the judge and auto maker.

My brother was driving a rented 15-passenger van full of kids on a freeway when a tie rod broke loose. Even with the steering wheel turned fully the other way, he couldn't counter-act the errant wheel. The van veered into the median and rolled onto its side. Luckily, nobody was seriously hurt.

My brother was not ticketed, though perhaps the rental company was cited for negligent maintenance.

Yes, since you're on control of the vehicle, but you could then sue the manufacturer, but the onus is then on you to prove it. Generally it doesn't matter because insurance pays for it.

If it was a criminal matter you might be able to get off by demonstrating the defect to the court though, since they generally are punishments for your behavior.

While 'should' & 'is' are two different things, what should happen is ticketing the manufacturer in casrs of either mechanical failure like this or bad self-driving. Plus, Finland-style, ticket fines should be scaled to income, with the schedule of fines continuing to increase to corporate levels of income.

Edit: the scaled fines should get their attention, and using the traffic citation method instead of (in addition to) possibility of later lawsuits is to get their attention to fixes sooner. when the penalties are vague and years-to-decades in the future, they have little effect on current management (see Ford Pinto/Bobcat fuel tank fiasco that killed multiple people).

Depends on whether the investigation shows whether it was a mechanical failure, an accident, negligence on your part, or on purpose.

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