HIGHLY AUTOMATED AND CONNECTED VEHICLES: DATA PRIVACY AND THIRD-PARTY LIABILITY
CD: Could you provide an overview of recent developments in the highly automated and connected vehicles field? How would you describe their evolution?
Rice: One interesting and obvious development is the variety of use cases for highly autonomous vehicles (HAVs) in the age of COVID-19. With more pressure for companies to conduct contactless services, such as delivery, consumers are seeing value in HAVs in ways that were not obvious before. For example, Nuro, a Silicon Valley-based autonomous vehicle start-up launched in 2016, has grown 300 percent as large businesses, including Walmart, Kroger and Domino’s Pizza, are using their HAVs to conduct contactless deliveries and reduce risk of spread. It appears that Nuro has also recently partnered with CVS to conduct contactless prescription deliveries. Of course, much of this progress is still in the testing phase, but it is just another example of how challenges our society faces can be solved through technological innovation. On the other hand, however, the pandemic has also halted a lot of momentum for other autonomous vehicle projects, such as shared autonomous taxis for hygiene concerns.
Oct-Dec 2020 issue
Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.