Autonomous Car Regulation in the Smart Transportation Infrastructure: Ethical Issues, Legal Liabilities, and Privacy Concerns

This article reviews and advances existing literature concerning autonomous car regulation in the smart transportation infrastructure. Using and replicating data from AUVSI, Black Veatch, Ipsos, Perkins Coie, and Pew Research Center, I performed analyses and made estimates regarding expected impacts of autonomous vehicles on aspects of the urban environment and transportation system (safety, vehicle miles traveled tax, equity (mobility), sprawl, cars on the road, energy use, employment, walking and biking, congestion, equity, employment (transportation), segregation, transportation costs, transit ridership, pollution, and municipal revenues), % of U.S. adults who say it will take less than 10 years/10 to less than 50 years/50 to less than 100 years/100+ years for most vehicles on the road to be driverless, factors that will influence organizations’ pursuit of autonomous vehicle initiatives (policy, infrastructure, incentives, public transit, design planning (reuse of city assets), and serving as a testbed), and how the adoption of autonomous vehicle technology will affect product liability risks for manufacturers of self-driving cars and their components. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.