{"id":"d922cbf4-44b7-43b8-86a0-b14337efbb69","slug":"bryant-walker-smith","name":"Bryant Walker Smith","bioBrief":"Bryant Walker Smith is an Associate Professor of Law at the Joseph F. Rice School of Law and a courtesy faculty member in the College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina. He is also an affiliate scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, where he previously led the legal aspects of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford's automated driving program. In 2025 he served as a visiting professor at Renmin University of China. Trained as both a transportation engineer and a lawyer, Smith combines the two disciplines to advise cities, states, national governments, and the United Nations on automated driving, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies.\n\nSmith made his reputation with a pair of foundational papers that framed the first decade of automated-driving law. His 2013 study \"Automated Vehicles Are Probably Legal in the United States\" (published as a report and later in law review form) remains the most-cited legal analysis of whether self-driving vehicles may lawfully be sold and operated on public roads, and it shaped how state legislatures, DOT, and industry approached the question. He was a coauthor of the SAE J3016 taxonomy that produced the widely used Levels 0 through 5 of driving automation, a framework that has become the vocabulary of the entire industry and its regulators. Related early work, including \"A Legal Perspective on Three Misconceptions in Vehicle Automation\" (2014) and \"Proximity-Driven Liability\" (2013, Georgetown Law Journal), pushed the debate past capability myths and into product liability and post-sale duties.\n\nHis government service includes vice-chairing the US Department of Transportation's Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (successor advisory work to the earlier Advisory Committee on Automation in Transportation), testifying before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (most recently at the February 2026 hearing \"Hit the Road, Mac: The Future of Self-Driving Cars\"), serving as an expert witness for the State of California, and drafting the Uniform Law Commission's model law on automated driving. He taught what is widely credited as the first law school course dedicated to automated driving, at Stanford in 2012, and clerked for Judge Evan J. Wallach of the US Court of International Trade.\n\nSmith's current work concentrates on the gap between what automated-driving companies claim and what their systems actually do. His forthcoming Drake Law Review article \"'Self-Driving' Means Self-Driving\" (2026) argues that Tesla's marketing of \"Full Self-Driving\" is legally actionable misrepresentation, and his forthcoming Southern California Law Review piece \"Regulating Robotaxis\" (with Matthew Wansley) sets out a regulatory architecture for commercial driverless services. Other recent scholarship includes \"Ideal Enforcement\" in the Michigan Technology Law Review (2024, with Jeffrey Michael and Johnathon Ehsani) and \"Dall-E Does Palsgraf\" in the Case Western Reserve Journal of Law, Technology and the Internet (2023). He publishes and archives his work at newlypossible.org.","priorExits":null,"nationality":"American","verificationPosture":"verified","aliases":["B. Walker Smith","Bryant Smith","B.W. Smith"],"sources":[{"url":"https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/law/faculty_and_staff/directory/smith_bryant_walker.php","title":"Bryant Walker Smith — Faculty profile","sourceName":"University of South Carolina"},{"url":"https://newlypossible.org/","title":"New Possible (personal site)","sourceName":"Bryant Walker Smith"},{"url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1315586","title":"SSRN author page","sourceName":"SSRN"},{"url":"https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/bryant-walker-smith/","title":"Bryant Walker Smith — Stanford Center for Internet and Society profile","sourceName":"Stanford CIS"},{"url":"https://newlypossible.org/wiki/Publications","title":"Publications archive — newlypossible.org","sourceName":"newlypossible.org"},{"url":"https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/05C131FA-5011-406D-A9A1-C64BE8E81CE4","title":"Written Testimony of Professor Bryant Walker Smith (Feb 2026 Senate Commerce Hearing)","sourceName":"US Senate Commerce Committee"},{"url":"https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2026/02/opening-statement-of-professor-bryant-walker-smith-for-the-u-s-senate-commerce-committees-hearing-on-automated-driving-february-4-2026-2/","title":"Opening Statement, Senate Commerce Hearing on Automated Driving (Feb 4, 2026)","sourceName":"Stanford CIS blog"},{"url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2303904","title":"Automated Vehicles Are Probably Legal in the United States (SSRN)","sourceName":"SSRN"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5631391","title":"'Self-Driving' Means Self-Driving (2026, forthcoming Drake L. Rev.)","sourceName":"SSRN"},{"url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2923240","title":"Automated Driving and Product Liability (SSRN)","sourceName":"SSRN"},{"url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2336234","title":"Proximity-Driven Liability (SSRN)","sourceName":"SSRN"},{"url":"https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2022/01/deep-weeds-levels-driving-automation-lurks-ambiguous-minimal-risk-condition/","title":"Deep in the Weeds of the Levels of Driving Automation (2022)","sourceName":"Stanford CIS blog"},{"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/self-driving-cars-senate-hearing-cruz-waymo-tesla/","title":"Tesla and Waymo defend AV safety before Senate (CBS News, 2026)","sourceName":"CBS News"},{"url":"https://www.governing.com/authors/bryant-walker-smith.html","title":"Bryant Walker Smith — Governing author archive","sourceName":"Governing"},{"url":"https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uT6uM2AAAAAJ&hl=en","title":"A legal perspective on three misconceptions in vehicle automation (2014) — Road Vehicle Automation (Springer) · cited by 29","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uT6uM2AAAAAJ&hl=en","title":"Managing autonomous transportation demand (2012) — Santa Clara Law Review 52 · cited by 136","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2749375","title":"How governments can promote automated driving (2017) — New Mexico Law Review 47 · cited by 53","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uT6uM2AAAAAJ&hl=en","title":"New technologies and old treaties (2020) — Cambridge University Press · cited by 15","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://www.autonews.com/podcasts/shift/an-bryant-walker-smith-autonomous-vehicle/","title":"Automotive News (Shift podcast): State of the self-driving industry (Episode 274) (2024)","sourceName":"Automotive News (Shift podcast)"},{"url":"https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/licensing-waymo/","title":"The Road to Autonomy: Commentary on Waymo licensing and AV regulation (2024)","sourceName":"The Road to Autonomy"},{"url":"https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uT6uM2AAAAAJ&hl=en","title":"Legal personality (1927) — Yale Law Journal 37 · cited by 321","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/12/human-error-cause-vehicle-crashes","title":"Human error as a cause of vehicle crashes (2013) — Center for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School · cited by 89","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2010202118","title":"From driverless dilemmas to more practical commonsense tests for automated vehicles (2021) — PNAS 118(11) · cited by 73","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/12/sae-levels-driving-automation","title":"SAE levels of driving automation (2013) — Stanford Center for Internet and Society · cited by 63","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2779966","title":"The Trolley and the Pinto: Cost-benefit analysis in automated driving (2016) — Texas A&M Law Review 4 · cited by 39","sourceName":"Google Scholar"},{"url":"https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/Automated_Driving:_Legislative_and_Regulatory_Action","title":"Automated driving: legislative and regulatory action (2015) — Stanford Center for Internet and Society · cited by 24","sourceName":"Google Scholar"}],"reviewStatus":"reviewed","createdAt":"2026-08-25T23:24:20.197Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-26T01:02:21.530Z","educations":[{"id":"c6794f1b-6895-4092-b9a1-d93cad06eec3","personId":"d922cbf4-44b7-43b8-86a0-b14337efbb69","institution":"New York University School of Law","degree":"LL.M. in International Legal Studies","startYear":null,"endYear":null,"createdAt":"2026-08-25T23:38:06.703Z"},{"id":"9967d1f8-98f7-4a9c-90da-c7edcb461b1a","personId":"d922cbf4-44b7-43b8-86a0-b14337efbb69","institution":"New York University School of Law","degree":"J.D. 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