Car Accident Involving Driverless Cars
In 2015, Tesla released their first self-driving car model and this has caused people an access to autonomous vehicles and most of them are americans which producer of Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an american leading to an early release of these models to be in U.S. A national study conducted by
Americans are largely in favor of having access to more autonomous vehicles. A national study by American Automobile Association (AAA) found out that 60% of the public wanted autonomous driving feature on their next vehicles and it is slowly becoming reality as more than 1,400 self-driving cars are on the streets of U.S. in the recent date but even in these numbers 54% of the survey respondents said that they feel less secured about the thought of self-driving cars on the road even with the recent updates on its safety features and the system itself.
As given that likelihood of car accidents along U.S. streets is high with manual cars, let alone autonomous vehicles and determining liability for accidents involving autonomous vehicles would be hard. In this blog, we are going to discuss how to determine at-fault side in car accidents involving a driverless vehicle.
Retrospect
Throughout the years, figuratively similar to humans, machines aren’t built to be perfect as there were two recorded accidents since the release of first automated driving vehicles. In 2016, a driver from Florida was the first fatally involved driver who was behind a Tesla Model S in autopilot mode which was caused by a tractor trailer who illegally crossed the highway, two years later, a self-diving car operated by Uber ran over a 49 year old pedestrian at a ridiculous speed of 40 mph.
Who is responsible on such events?
These days, all autonomous vehicles on road are at level two or lower from level of automation and one legal theory states that humans cannot or should not delegate their responsibility or negligence to a machine to do a certain activity, specifically in this blog, driving. Generally, drivers behind any form of vehicle are liable on accidents if they were proven negligent.
But as vehicles becoming more autonomous, increasing their level of automation, car accident claims involving driverless cars may turn into product liability actions. Under this legal theory, manufacturers involved in a specific car part that has failed and caused the recent accident may be held responsible. Given this, these example parties may possibly be liable for the accident such as:
- Car manufacturer
- Software programmer
- Fleet owner
- Manufacturer of the vehicle’s components
Truly, traffic accidents involving driverless cars could be a little tricky and distinguishing it from personal injury or liability claim would be definitely hard if doing this all by one’s self. Hiring an attorney with experience and is competent enough to do this would certainly help you. If ever one of your family members or closests friend has been involved in an accident who have sustained either minor or significant injuries and even a possible case of amputation because of possibly a driver or the car’s manufacturer has shown apparent negligence and recklessness and caused an accident and render the victim to have life-threatening injuries and condition, you can always refer help from a professional experienced injury lawyer to smoothen things out as your hired lawyers can help you decide from their factual and legal advices and can help you sort things out legally rather than settling over cash offer without damage calculation and future’s regards.
Ryan Injury Lawyers is an Ohio based injury lawyer that represents victims of personal injury caused by car accidents, medical malpractice due to medical professional’s negligence, and even wrongful death against large companies, agencies and even individuals. We have 40 years of experience doing our service in this field and evidently successful with our civil litigations. Call our office now for free legal consultation.