I’m in Minneapolis the next two days, taking part in a terrific industry expo show, RoboticsAlley. It covers the broad range of robotics, from industrial robots to health care and assistive robots, along with a number of exhibitors from the electronics industries. Baxter-the-robot is here. It also covers drones and self-driving cars – the UAV […]
Archive | Robotics
We Robot 2014: Risks and Opportunities – Call for Submissions
For those of you working at the intersection of law, policy, and technology of robotics, We Robot 2014 is the conference for you. Now going into its third year, it is the premier meeting on the interdisciplinary issues across law, society, and technology. The 2014 conference will be held in Coral Gables, Florida, on April […]
Banning Autonomous Weapon Systems Won’t Solve the Problems the Ban Campaign Thinks It Will
Although much less visible in the United States than in Europe, the campaign to ban “killer robots” has not gone away. If anything, it’s gathering steam in Europe and also at the UN, where it is likely to be taken up following a report by Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns calling, not precisely for a ban, […]
Looking at My Vehicle Automation Entries in the Rear-View Mirror
By Bryant Walker Smith, guest-blogging on October 6, 2013 2:52 pm in Automation, Regulation, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars
Thank you for reading my posts this week. If you happen to be Eugene Volokh or Ken Anderson, thank you in particular for making them possible. And if you were one of my thoughtful commenters, thank you for questioning and challenging; I have read your remarks with great interest. My goal in these posts was […]
Planning for the Obsolescence of Technologies Not Yet Invented
By Bryant Walker Smith, guest-blogging on October 4, 2013 6:50 pm in Automation, Drones (UAVs), Privacy, Regulation, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars, Torts
The automated motor vehicles that I have discussed this week are just one example of the remarkable technologies coming to our roads, skies, homes, and even bodies. A decade from now, we’ll marvel at how advanced these new products are. But a decade after that, we’ll marvel at how anachronistic they have become. Rapid technological […]
The Reasonable Self-Driving Car
By Bryant Walker Smith, guest-blogging on October 3, 2013 2:38 am in Automation, Regulation, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars
A common debate in many circles–including the comments on my posts here–is whether legal burdens, technical limitations, or consumer preferences present the greatest immediate obstacle to fully automated motor vehicles. (Fully automated vehicles are capable of driving themselves anywhere a human can. In contrast, the low-speed shuttles from my post on Monday are route-restricted, and […]
The Impact of Automation on Environmental Impact Statements
By Bryant Walker Smith, guest-blogging on October 1, 2013 6:06 pm in Automation, Energy, Environment, Regulation, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars
Since the 1950s, the Long Beach Freeway has linked the massive Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to, roughly, the rest of the continental United States. Because much has changed in trade and traffic since then, California’s relevant transportation authorities have decided that perhaps this freeway should change as well. The resulting Draft Environmental […]
Driverless Carts Are Coming Sooner Than Driverless Cars
By Bryant Walker Smith, guest-blogging on September 30, 2013 7:55 pm in Automation, Regulation, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars
I’m delighted to be spending this week committing overt acts in furtherance of the Volokh Conspiracy. Since joining Stanford in 2011, I’ve been studying the increasing automation, connectivity, and capability that promise to dramatically change our lives, institutions, and laws. My posts this week will focus on one key example: self-driving vehicles (or whatever you […]
Bryant Walker Smith Guest-Blogging This Week About Self-Driving Cars, Automation Technologies, and Their Regulation
By Kenneth Anderson on September 29, 2013 4:58 pm in Automation, Regulation, Robotics, Self-Driving Cars, Torts
Automation and robotic technologies have popped up in Volokh Conspiracy posts several times during the last few years – drone aircraft, autonomous or highly automated weapons, nursing and eldercare assistance machines and, of course, self-driving cars. So I’m pleased to announce that Bryant Walker Smith, a leading expert on automation and the law, will be […]
Domestic Drone Regulation for Safety and Privacy
By Kenneth Anderson on September 8, 2013 1:48 pm in Drones (UAVs), Privacy, Robotics, Uncategorized, Video
Today’s (Sunday, Sep 8, 2013) New York Times has a story by Anne Eisenberg, “Preflight Turbulence for Commercial Drones.” The article combines two crucial topics in connection with drones (remotely piloted aerial vehicles, or unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, but my advice to the industry and USAF is that the People Have Spoken, and it’s “drones”): […]
The Plight of Star Wars’ Droids
Erik Sofge has an interesting Slate article about the oppression to which droids are subjected in the Stars Wars universe: George Lucas doesn’t care about metal people. No other explanation makes sense. In a kid-targeted sci-fi setting that’s notably inclusive, with as many friendly alien characters as villainous ones, the human rights situation for robots […]
John Villasenor on Domestic Drones, Airspace Safety, and Privacy Protection
John Villasenor – a professor of engineering at UCLA and a Brookings Institution senior fellow – has a new article at Slate on the domestic use of drones. (The article part of a conference held yesterday at the New America Foundation in conjunction with Arizona State University on domestic drone policy, with many fine participants; […]
Self-Driving Vehicles – How Soon and Who Will Bear the Liability Costs?
Self-driving cars are receiving a lot of attention these days – partly as the technologies that make them possible advance and partly because, well, we the public are more aware of them and are realizing there is quite a lot to discuss regarding their regulation and use. As the technologies that appear to be making […]
The Debate About to Heat Up Over HRW’s Call to Ban “Killer Robots,” AKA Autonomous Weapon Systems
By Kenneth Anderson on April 13, 2013 7:13 pm in Human Rights Watch, International Law, National Security, Robotics, War and Armed Conflict
(And: thanks to Instapundit for linking to the new policy essay by Matthew Waxman and me from the Hoover Institution, referenced at the end of this post, Law and Ethics for Autonomous Weapon Systems – thanks Glenn!) Last November, two documents appeared within a few days of each other, each addressing the emerging legal and […]
US Surveillance Drones Aid French Airstrikes in Mali
By Kenneth Anderson on March 4, 2013 1:01 pm in National Security, Robotics, Science Fiction/Fantasy, War and Armed Conflict
The Wall Street Journal national security reporting team has a new article in today’s Journal on how US surveillance drones are providing intelligence and targeting information to French forces in Mali, which then use the information to direct French (manned) airstrikes. The drone surveillance marks, according to the article, a widened role for the US […]