Automotive Engineering - June 2023 - 13

TECHNOLOGY REPORT
SOFTWARE
Setting guideposts for product liability and ethics in AI
" Holy cats. What happens when this
stuff goes wrong? "
That's how mechanical engineer and
attorney Jennifer Dukarski framed her
tech talk about developments in vehicular
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning at the 2023 SAE WCX conference
in Detroit. She linked the discussion
to General Motors' March announcement
that it was exploring using ChatGPT as
the driver interface in vehicles.
" I remember about seven years ago, at
CES, Toyota had a demo of a super
smart vehicle that would have a conversation
with you and ask you how you're
feeling, " Dukarski said. " So using that,
kind of fast-forwarding to today, maybe
using ChatGPT will give a good dialogue
or conversation. But when you look at it,
GM really is doubling down on their partnership
with Microsoft, which is putting
about $10 billion into the company that
created ChatGPT. So where that will go? "
Dukarski, who leads the Connected
Car and Autonomous Vehicle Specialty
team at Detroit-based Butzel Long,
looked to history to relay the kinds of
liability and other legal issues that can
come from AI. She cited:
* A 2017 lawsuit in which a tourist bus
using Garmin GPS plowed into a
bridge for which it was too tall, injuring
passengers. The suit accused
Garmin of negligence and of faulty
software design. As many similar casEngineer-attorney
Jennifer Dukarski detailed the legal developments of rapidly advancing vehicular
AI during a workshop at SAE's 2023 WCX.
es are, it was settled, which Dukarski
said meant " we'll never really know "
the complete circumstances.
* A 2018 case in which a lane-hopping
motorcyclist was hit by a partially
autonomous car. The case was settled
but left industry eyebrows
arched when GM said in a filing that it
had a duty to design a system that
acts responsibly.
* The Tesla cases seen
since 2018, some of
which have concentrated
on an assertion
that Tesla should have
known that people
would misuse the system
it calls Autopilot.
She cited one case that
should have gone to
trial last week but may
have been settled.
Liability doesn't just
GM plans to explore the use of AI-based ChatGPT from Microsoft
as a driver-interface modality and announced it wll stop using
Apple's CarPlay interface in new EVs.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
concern OEMs, either. " If
you're a consumer, and
you have an issue, you
have the right to go after
the manufacturer, you have a right to go
after the suppliers, " Dukarski said. " And
as a trend, we're seeing more suppliers
get caught up in direct litigation, they're
being named more and more. So the
supply chain is being brought to the
table in class actions more frequently. "
She did note that even though most
supplier contracts have clear, strong
indemnification language putting liability
on the supplier, it's an interesting
dance the OEMs must perform, because
it's not in their best interests to shut
down a supply chain.
She briefly approached the ethics of
AI, asking rhetorically if " we should put
bumpers on our AI systems to keep
them from doing something illegal? "
She said there are already reoccurring
issues of bias in AI systems.
Dukarski encouraged SAE members
to get involved in solving these complex
challenges. " We're going to continue to
see SAE and other standards bodies
weigh in on it, which I think is really going
to be our guideposts, " she said.
Chris Clonts
June 2023 13
FROM TOP: SAE/CHRIS CLONTS; GM
Automotive Engineering - June 2023

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