SAN FRANCISCO — The future seems to keep getting here more quickly than we expect. We can monitor our kids from a hand-held device, our takeout might soon be delivered by robots, and self-driving cars are already cruising our streets.

But as more of this technology goes mainstream and interacts with consumers, the legal exposure for companies similarly expands. Here's an overview of where liability litigation and emerging tech are likely to collide.

Driverless Cars

Liability on the roads right now is pretty much a driver-centered issue; if you smack into someone's rear bumper because you're glued to Snapchat, the fault is yours. But as driverless cars make their way onto the roads, the picture becomes a lot more complicated, said Farella, Braun + Martel insurance lawyer Dennis Cusack in our latest podcast.

Right now, the autonomous cars that are on the road are “hybrids,” with human operators who are expected to remain alert even when in autonomous mode. Parsing whether the machine or the human failed can be a complicated endeavor, especially when other cars on the road are not autonomous. It took federal regulators months to determine whether Tesla was at fault in a May 2016 crash involving an automated Tesla Model S and a tractor-trailer. (They ultimately could not find any defect.)