Not my particular area of expertise, but you can probably go after everyone involved:
Operators and owners--negligence for using car without a driver, strict liability for ultra-hazardous activity
Manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and anyone who makes products available--are liable under products liability for any manufacturing defect, design defect, or failure to warn of dangers.
Potential criminal penalties for anyone involved (including engineers) if they put out cars knowing they aren't ready yet) or fake results, etc.
One thing that keeps most car accidents from going into full scale massive litigation is that the drivers causing the accidents are usually not worth that much money.
But if I'm a plaintiff lawyer and my client got killed by a Google car? I'm not asking for the 500k dollars the insurance coverage provides. I'm asking for big numbers because juries are going to make Google pay for each death.
Operators and owners--negligence for using car without a driver, strict liability for ultra-hazardous activity
Manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and anyone who makes products available--are liable under products liability for any manufacturing defect, design defect, or failure to warn of dangers.
Potential criminal penalties for anyone involved (including engineers) if they put out cars knowing they aren't ready yet) or fake results, etc.
One thing that keeps most car accidents from going into full scale massive litigation is that the drivers causing the accidents are usually not worth that much money.
But if I'm a plaintiff lawyer and my client got killed by a Google car? I'm not asking for the 500k dollars the insurance coverage provides. I'm asking for big numbers because juries are going to make Google pay for each death.