Technology affects law. Law affects technology. The relationship between the two goes both ways, and is an ongoing process that deserves study – and discussion – in and of itself, says Professor Bryant Walker Smith, particularly as emerging and new technologies will continue to come into tension with the law seemingly every day. He examines how law responds to, incorporates, and affects the development of new technologies. He also addresses questions of risk and regulation from both public and private perspectives, and considers a range of currently emerging technologies (automated vehicles, drones, robots), as well as historic innovations (the railroad) that offer insights into anticipating and resolving key legal and policy tensions.
It’s a question that regulators, judges, juries, managers, engineers and researchers confront every day – and they arrive at answers that are simultaneously perplexing yet remarkably consistent. But why and how does this matter? Drawing from a popular class he teaches every year, Professor Bryant Walker Smith brings valuation from the shadows into the spotlight through anecdotes and analysis. He explores how we value life for the purposes of design, benefit analysis, agency rulemaking, litigation and awarding of damages, and the implications of the numbers we put worth. It affects whether a rule happens or doesn’t. Whether a company installs a part or doesn’t. If that same company gets in trouble for not installing that part years later. Whether people who drive ARE in a position to compensate those they may injure. It all comes back to the value of life.
Our cars are getting smarter. They dictate (and recalculate) directions, sync with our phones, help us park or switch lanes, and brake if we don’t before it’s too late. The fact that more than 70 percent of car buyers prefer vehicles with such advanced, autonomous features indicates a significant shift in the industry. But are we ready to hand over the keys to technology and share the road with self-driving vehicles?
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