Or a simple analysis: if you ask “what do they know and how do they know it”, obviously a judge and jury are going to have a high error rate on something like a low probability event involving complex medical information. Likely giving judgements that are not better than noise.
The liability system “worked” when it was obvious things like manufacturers bolting the bumper to the gas tank (though some studies show the pinto wasn’t actually less safe than similar cars of that era) or really more blatant things like coal mines without safety railings. When the risk is very high numerically and grokkable by non experts the system can work.
You also have liability asymmetries, for example with autonomous cars the manufacturer has far deeper pockets than individual drivers, so the relative cost of insuring the risk goes way up unjustly.
These assymetries create injustices, for example medicine for fatal diseases that can sometimes kill he patient is frequently not approved. The injustice is the patients are seeing a higher risk of death but it shields the FDA from criticism/manufacturer from liability. Obviously also the case for autonomous cars once they are even slightly better than the average human driver.
Or a simple analysis: if you ask “what do they know and how do they know it”, obviously a judge and jury are going to have a high error rate on something like a low probability event involving complex medical information. Likely giving judgements that are not better than noise.
The liability system “worked” when it was obvious things like manufacturers bolting the bumper to the gas tank (though some studies show the pinto wasn’t actually less safe than similar cars of that era) or really more blatant things like coal mines without safety railings. When the risk is very high numerically and grokkable by non experts the system can work.
You also have liability asymmetries, for example with autonomous cars the manufacturer has far deeper pockets than individual drivers, so the relative cost of insuring the risk goes way up unjustly.
These assymetries create injustices, for example medicine for fatal diseases that can sometimes kill he patient is frequently not approved. The injustice is the patients are seeing a higher risk of death but it shields the FDA from criticism/manufacturer from liability. Obviously also the case for autonomous cars once they are even slightly better than the average human driver.