With the general legal landscape surrounding autonomous vehicles still evolving, one area that is particularly unclear is who can be held liable when an autonomous/self-driving vehicle causes an accident.
Depending on the circumstances, the liability could fall on any of the following: the car’s manufacturer, the company that operated the vehicle, or the person who was in the car at the time of the accident. Today, we’ll explore the different possible scenarios and what the legal consequences could be.
Common sense would say that the driver or operator should be responsible for causing accidents while operating a vehicle.
However, this isn’t always the case. There have been many cases where the manufacturer of the vehicle was held accountable for the damages caused by the vehicle. This includes Tesla Motors Inc., who were sued after a Model S crashed into a truck in 2016.
Can Self-driving Vehicles Be Held Liable for Car Accidents?
Self-driving and autonomous vehicle technologies are advancing every day, therefore making the idea of using self-driving cars increasingly popular among most people.
However, if you’re manning a driverless car, how can we determine who would be responsible for any motor vehicle crashes that might lead to people getting injured or killed?
That is certainly a tough question to answer at this point as the laws and regulations surrounding autonomous vehicle technologies are still in infancy.
With the matter of liability for accidents involving self-driving cars still being a developing area of law, there are many laws and policies that need to be studied and enacted to be able to determine who is liable when a car causes damage to people or property during a crash.
We are living in an age where the responsibilities of driving a vehicle are shifting from the human operator to the autonomous machine, and current liability laws need to evolve in order to match the advancements in technology and be able to formulate the correct remedies for incidents where injuries and damages are involved.
Before we are able to fully introduce the more advanced levels of vehicle automation, the insurance industry needs to adapt to the new technologies and formulate the best ways to insure commercial and personal vehicles.
Currently, all of the approved technologies being used tend to be driver-assistance systems that help pilot the vehicle and lighten the load on the drivers. However, they still do require the full attention of the driver to be able to intervene at any point of time.
With that said, drivers still carry some of the liability of car crashes as they are required to be alert to everything happening around their vehicle and should be able to take over and correct any seemingly wrong inputs from the car systems.
What Are Some Examples of Vehicle Technology That Can Be Blamed for Car Accidents?
Although all the major auto manufacturers are developing and testing the most advanced safety features in their semi-autonomous and fully-autonomous vehicles, that does not mean accidents have or will completely vanish. At least not in a short timeframe.
Major technology and vehicle manufacturing companies such as Google, Tesla, and Uber have been constantly testing autonomous technologies in the last few years, yet every single one of them have had accidents happen while testing their future products. Unfortunately, some of these accidents were fatal.
Technical glitches are still commonly seen even in the most advanced systems and are the leading cause of autonomous and self-driving vehicle accidents.
However, as advanced driver-assistance systems become more common on new vehicles, driving is becoming safer with the help of advanced collision warnings and automatic braking.
Given these facts, as we get better at developing autonomous and driver-assistance technologies, the number of collisions and crash-related injuries and deaths are bound to go down.
According to Los Angeles injury law firm Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi, with the increase in available self driving vehicle technologies, traditional negligence in car accidents will likely fall as well, leading to reduced insurance costs for auto vehicle owners.
In essence, liability in vehicle accidents is rather tough to contest. As claims get more complex, you should have a trusted lawyer to help walk you through all the legal complexities.
Autonomous and Self-driving Trucks Are Likely to Be Released Before Cars
While major companies are struggling to develop the technology for fully autonomous passenger-vehicles, truck manufacturers are a lot more likely to be approved and used much sooner.
This goes down to many reasons, the main being that trucks that haul goods on our roads drive on open highways about 90% of their life. This makes it a lot easier to develop the technologies needed to achieve full self driving in limited circumstances.