Welcome back for another week of What's Next, where we report on the intersection of law and technology. This week, we check in with O'Melveny's Melody Drummond Hansen for a tune up on the full-throttle future of autonomous and connected vehicles. Plus, Amal and George Clooney launch an artificially intelligent app to monitor courtroom corruption. And lawyers share plans to devote a bigger chunk of change to a growing field.

 ➤➤ Would you like to receive What's Next as weekly email. Sign up here. 

Melody Drummond Hansen of O'Melveny & Myers.

The Road to Legality for Autonomous Vehicles

O'Melveny & Myers' chair for its automated and connected vehicles industry group did not own a car until she moved to the firm's Silicon Valley office a few years ago. Melody Drummond Hansen grew up in rural South Carolina in an area where paved roads were a bit harder to come by. As the firm's intellectual property and technology partner, Drummond Hansen helps companies maneuver around the regulatory and litigation risks, as well as data and privacy concerns on the path to self-driving ubiquity. “I am a long way from that dirt road in South Carolina,” she said.

We caught up with Drummond Hansen to check in on the emerging law around automated vehicles, which she suspects will begin regularly transporting passengers any day now. First, however, the legal community and consumers need to get up to speed.

>> What are the newest developments around autonomous vehicles?  There are myriad developments that can be challenging to track. We have a fun widget on our website that tracks federal and state regulations, but one of the most interesting trends we're seeing is some cooperation among different folks in the industry to educate and collaborate in the space.