Lexpert Magazine

LEXPERT MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 67 BY GEORGE TAKACH TECHNOLOGY Technological innovations such as digitally managed deliveries and self-driving cars will all have legal ramifications Happy New Tech Year! AS WE USHER in 2018 it's worth step- ping back from our day-to-day preoccupa- tions with specific tech issues and look at the broader picture of where the market in innovation is going, what we can expect in the next year (and in the years thereaer), and the legal ramifications of those new technologies and business models. THINGS ARE TECH-ING UP Before turning to some particular trends, it is worth proposing that, in general, there is a widespread sense that the pace and reach of the tech revolution is increasing. is is important. And it's not that IT has been unimportant over the past 30 years. Rath- er, it is that IT has morphed from impor- tant to critical. Fairly recently, the CEO of a big Ameri- can bank said something to the effect of "a bank is really just a technology company." You may quibble with the veracity of this statement; frankly, I would add that a bank also employs some very smart marketing people who constantly have to develop new financial products. And a bank is also a cul- ture of risk management. We saw in other jurisdictions just a decade ago what can happen when that dictum is forgotten. But to the core point of the CEO's state- ment — yes, I believe it is fundamentally accurate because today, the very system by which financial-services products are offered, and used, and audited and risk- managed, are principally through tech- nology-enabled channels. Moreover, this same conclusion can be made of more and more businesses. Consider grocery. e seminal break- through event of 2017 for that industry was the purchase of the physical chain Whole Foods by the e-commerce exemplar Amazon — how ironic that! But wait un- til you see what Amazon has in store for Whole Foods, including a checkout system that utilizes no cashier or counter — your bill gets made up electronically as you take items off the shelf, and when you're done filling up your basket or cart, you just walk out (because the payment has already been made). Not a huge surprise, though, given that Amazon gave us the One-Click online checkout process that revolutionized buy- ing over the internet, and helped cement Amazon's place in the digital firmament. CONNECTING DIGITALLY TO THE HOME While we're on grocery, the other big thing that will come of age in 2018 is remote or- dering for groceries, coupled with home de- livery. Yes, we've had this in North Ameri- ca since the earliest dot.com days, but really only as a rather niche business model serv- ing a relatively small group of time-starved professionals and members of the digital illuminati. Watch this year (and over the next four to five years) as digital grocery product selection and related digitally managed home delivery services become mainstream, like e-banking. In 2018 (as a test), and by 2020-2023 (in volume), digitally managed delivery will begin to make headway in many cit- ies, as tests of the autonomous, self-driving vehicle come to a municipality near you. at's not surprising — nor a moment too soon — because driving a car in cities such as Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver has become a form of modern-day self-flagella- tion. It is, in a word, madness. ere are various regulatory, administra- tive and technical issues with self-driving cars, each accompanied by interesting le- gal questions. When I see a successful test of an autonomous vehicle in the desert in Nevada, I smile, and say to myself, "at's fine, as far as it goes, but I'm curious how the test performs in an Eastern Canadian conurbation with a foot of snow on the road at 15 C below." Well, we'll start see- ing some meaningful Canadian test results not too long from now. Presumably tort lawyers will also be dusting off their prod- uct liability texts, though expect a lot less of this legal work once we hit steady state (i.e., aer the tests and once we have mass adoption) because the problematic human element centred around the fatigued, or frail, or distracted, or inexperienced driver will be taken out of the accident equation, resulting in much safer roads for all. SELF-DRIVING TRUCKS, AND THE EMPLOYMENT DEBATE Another industry that will begin to be rocked by autonomous vehicles (AV) will be trucking. e workforce that drives long-haul trucks on the highways of North America is getting older, and younger drivers do not like the long-haul lifestyle, including many days from home, the cramped sleeping quarters in the cab, the monotony and the loneliness. Well, hur- ray for the AV trucking model where the human driver collects the load in the met- ropolitan area, but then leaves the truck at the edge of the city (let's say Calgary). PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK | COLUMNS |

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