[NOTE: UNUSUAL WEEKDAY AND TIME!]




                  UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
             COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

                            presents


            "Robots, Innovation Risk and Tort Liability"

                       Joseph Savirimuthu
           (The Liverpool Law School, University of Liverpool)



                    21 November 2013 (*THURSDAY*)
                       ** 11 am - 12 noon **

                  Hatfield, College Lane Campus
                       Seminar Room B154

                  Everyone is Welcome to Attend

                  Refreshments will be available


Abstract:

  Robots are challenging some assumptions on how innovation risk is
to be managed. If robots are autonomous, how should liability be
ascribed? The debate has thus far focussed on addressing the robot's
level of autonomy. There is a danger that failing to identify the policy
issues at stake and how best innovation risks are to be mediated, may
lead to stifling the introduction of robots into mainstream society. This
presentation uses two cases on the interaction between tort liability,
innovation and human factors to suggest a subtle shift in the regulatory
paradigm. Using the tort liability issues raised in autonomous vehicles
I propose that we should be directing our efforts towards exploring how
human-machine collaboration can enhance safety. Charting a way forward
has been problematic. ISO 26262 has struggled to keep pace with advances
in technological innovation. Human factors rather than hardware/software
failures have also contributed to standard setting problems. Finally,
hazardous events could also be created by software rather than system
error. I argue that the cases of Donohue v Stevenson and Nettleship
v Weston provide us with three elements directly relevant to the
human-machine collaborative space - standard setting, verification of
the operation of the system, and adaptive capabilities to ensure that
behaviour can be aligned within the permissible limits of the system's
standards. Perhaps, law should be providing the invisible hand.


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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://cs-colloq.stca.herts.ac.uk