Google firms up self-driving car legal team in wake of accidents
Google is ramping up its self-driving car legal team with the appointment of Ken Vosen as its first general counsel, as it weathers ever growing scrutiny from US regulators.
A former chief legal officer at The Climate Corporation, Vosen’s arrival signals a potential change of tack by the technology giant as its technology matures, possibly to the extent of spinning off its self-driving division as a separate entity.
Despite racking up some 1.7m miles of automated driving across several US states a cautious Google has yet to set out a timetable for releasing the technology to the general public with any launch date likely to have been set back by a number of recent crashes.
Regulators are currently drafting guidelines for self-driving cars for release later this summer but this is taking place against a number of untoward incidents, notably a 7 May death of a Tesla Motors Model S driver whilst cruising in ‘Autopilot’ mode.