Open Cars – Accepted by Berkeley Technology Law Journal

Professor Lothar Determann of Berkeley Law (better known as Boalt Hall) and I have collaborated on a paper on Open Cars. “Open” this time means Open Standards, Open Interfaces, and an Open Aftermarket.  If you buy a BMW, will the autonomous driving computer always be from BMW, or can they be aftermarket devices that connect through Open Standards, creating a competitive market? And there’s lots of other discussion of the implications of autonomous vehicles and how things will change as automobiles become more computerized.

This is exciting for me, as it’s my first formally published law paper, and of course I’m not a lawyer. As an Open Source evangelist, computer programmer, and intellectual property specialist, I’ve spoken at several law conferences, and have even keynoted a few, but  haven’t submitted a paper before.

It was accepted by the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, which I hear is about the best tech law journal around, with a unanimous vote to accept by the editorial board, for publication in the Summer 2017 edition. A pre-publication version is available for download below. Your comments can help to improve the paper before it’s edited, write to bruce at perens dot com.

Today was exciting because Lothar and I presented a talk on the paper at Boalt Hall, where I’ve spoken a few times but never to this large an audience or with a catered lunch.

The discussion includes Open Source as one of a range of possibilities for Open Car software, but Open Source doesn’t dominate this paper.

Download: Open Cars Determann & Perens 32 BTLJ 2 [Forthcoming 2017]