The risks to manufacturers today are well understood by both the manufacturers and their insurance companies. We have decades of history to look at.
With driverless cars, on the other hand, who knows? What will the rate of accident be? Will they be minor or major? How many can be properly blamed on the operator? How many cars will they be responsible for? Will these accidents be spread out over time, or lumped together one way or another? Is the manufacturer liable for an accident caused directly or indirectly by another driver, human or computer?
Before driverless cars can happen, those questions need to be answered or mitigated one way or another. And it will have to be done in a way that is financially acceptable to those involved. I expect lots of legislative wrangling over it.
Either way, each accident will have orders of magnitude more data to describe the situation than we have now. Imagine an airplane black box on steroids. Blame will be efficiently placed, I think.
With driverless cars, on the other hand, who knows? What will the rate of accident be? Will they be minor or major? How many can be properly blamed on the operator? How many cars will they be responsible for? Will these accidents be spread out over time, or lumped together one way or another? Is the manufacturer liable for an accident caused directly or indirectly by another driver, human or computer?
Before driverless cars can happen, those questions need to be answered or mitigated one way or another. And it will have to be done in a way that is financially acceptable to those involved. I expect lots of legislative wrangling over it.