America stands at the precipice of a vehicular revolution. Myriads of self-driving vehicles—often referred to as “automated vehicles” or “AVs”—are already rolling out across the nation, and innovators assert that AVs will make our roads safer, less congested, and more economically productive. However, reaching these dreams of self-driving utopias will require more than just technological progress. The uses of traditional vehicles are heavily regulated by hundreds of thousands of state laws that ensure public safety, health, and order. Will these traditional laws still make sense when AVs shift the paradigm? Despite the hype and optimism of many AV advocates, this Article sounds a somber warning: State law is perilously unprepared for AV deployment.
This Article provides the first comprehensive empirical study of the issue and shows that more than 40,000 traditional state laws are unclear or ineffective when applied to AVs. At its core, the reason is simple. For more than a century, our laws have correctly assumed that flesh-and-blood humans drive vehicles, but this assumption rings false with self-driving technologies, leaving outdated state laws on a collision course with AVs. Without significant reforms, the resulting chaos and confusion threatens to undermine both safety, technological progress, and economic prosperity.
After describing and analyzing the problem, this Article considers solutions. Fortunately, the empirical analysis indicates that more than 80% of problematic state laws can be remedied through a single fix: updating the legal definitions of “driver” and “operator.” Less fortunately, addressing the remaining problematic state laws will require resolution of tricky policy questions across many legal domains. This Article then evaluates which legal institutions are best suited to developing the needed AV reforms. To date, most states have done nothing independently to prepare for AV deployment, while a minority of states have enacted inconsistent reforms, producing an incoherent patchwork of AV laws in the United States. This Article asserts that greater federal leadership is therefore needed to spur harmonized action. Specifically, federal authorities should work in partnership with state governments to develop “best practices” and provide financial incentives to encourage states to adopt them, in a fashion patterned after the highly successful Commercial Driver’s License system.