Tag Archives: Consumer Watchdog

California Ballot Scheme Limiting Robocar Liability Criticized

Posted on 19 March 2026 by Ken Zino

Uber announced today a partnership to put 50,000 Rivian Robotaxis on the road, including in San Francisco, the site of the Cruise AV crash with a pedestrian and Fire Truck. This comes as powerful corporate and legal interests are embattled in a fight over an upcoming California ballot initiative in November limiting victims’ medical recovery in all accident cases. Opponents claim it will prevent the seriously injured from finding contingency fee attorneys, making it difficult to sue robocar operators, manufacturers, or any reckless driver or automaker.

“This is a naked power grab by Uber to remove liability for its robotaxis and accelerate their rollout without accountability when their robotaxis harm or kill pedestrians and other drivers,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit that issued a report, “License To Kill: How Uber’s Rush To Close Courthouse Doors And Roll Out Robocars Threatens Public Safety.” Continue reading →

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Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Watchdog Again Push FTC, State Attorneys General to Probe Tesla After Autopilot Death

Posted on 5 August 2019 by Ken Zino

Since the consumer groups called on the FTC to investigate one year ago, another American has died (that makes three known fatals), others have been injured, and “many more have acted recklessly as a result of deceptive practices by Tesla making their owners believe that a Tesla with ‘Autopilot’ is an autonomous vehicle capable of self-driving.” Continue reading →

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Former NHTSA Head Rosekind’s Zoox Move Questionable

Posted on 6 April 2017 by Ken Zino

In an inadvertent parody of Claude Rains’ assertion that he is shocked that gambling is going on, it’s alleged by Consumer Watchdog that the credibility of the autonomous vehicle policy issued last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -aka NHTSA – is undermined because former NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind has taken a job with autonomous vehicle developer Zoox. Continue reading →

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GEICO, Progressive Insurance Hit on Price Discrimination

Posted on 8 February 2017 by Ken Zino

Consumer Watchdog has petitioned the California Department of Insurance to reject GEICO’s and Progressive’s use of occupation in raising auto insurance rates. Continue reading →

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NHTSA – Artificial Intelligence is ‘Driver’ in Autonomous Cars

Posted on 11 February 2016 by Ken Zino

“Google says its robot technology failed and handed over control to a human test driver 272 times and the driver was scared enough to take control 69 times,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director. Continue reading →

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