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How Will Self-driving Cars Impact Personal Injury Law?
AUTO ACCIDENTS | PERSONAL INJURY LAW BLOG
June 13, 2016
It’s 2016, and we may not yet have Flying Cars that science fiction promised us in the eighties, but we may soon take consolation in something almost as cool: self-driving vehicles. A self-driving car might not take flight through the clouds, but imagine the possibilities: napping through long commutes; binge drinking without a designated driver or expensive cab fare; the option to get work done on the road, or relax with a movie or book. Pretty freaking cool — but how long will it be, really, before self-driving cars make all our lives a million times better?
Are We There Yet???
Self-driving cars may arrive sooner than you think.
Self-driving cars may dominate the roads in the not-too-distant future. Google has already been testing its self-driving car on approved public road ways in the State of California, and the tech company isn’t alone in the race to a new frontier. Many major automobile manufacturers, such as Mercedes, General Motors, and Tesla are also working on their own self-driving technology. With tons of money and some of the world’s brightest minds converging on this new technology, it’s only a matter of time before it’s made a reality. In fact, Business Insider boldly predicted that 10 million self-driving cars will be on the road by the year 2020.
Legal Implications
What do self-driving cars mean for personal injury law?
The rise of self-driving cars will take a torch to the rules, regulations, and laws that currently govern our nation’s transportation. New laws will need to be written in light of a fundamental change in how we think and act when it comes to travel. The revolutionary implications will ripple throughout countless industries, and it will be probably be lawyers that are left to piece together the legislation that will bridge the gap to the new era of driving. While sorting through that mess will be a bureaucratic nightmare, it’s a little bit easier to see what the future holds if the conversation is limited to personal injury law.
The biggest impact of self-driving cars on personal injury law is two-fold. One, the technology promises to drastically increase safety for motor vehicle transportation. The second question is one of liability — if your self-driving car causes an accident, who is at fault? Let’s take a look at both propositions in a little bit more detail.
Limiting Car Accidents and Injuries
Just how much safer will self-driven cars be?
The vast majority of automobile accidents are a result of driver error or negligence. One form of driver negligence that has grown substantially with the rise of smart phones and mobile technology is called distracting driving. Distracted driving has always been a safety issue, but now, it’s just our radios, french fries, or passengers that contribute to distractions; it’s our phones. Texting, using mobile GPS, and talking on the phone are among the major culprits that have made distracted driving an increasingly deadly hazard on our roads. According to a recent study by the US Department of Transportation, in 2014, 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were hurt in automobile crashes involving distracted drivers.
94%
Percentage of traffic accidents caused by human error
8,386
number of Brevard motor vehicle crashes in 2015
6,133
number of 2015 traffic accident injuries in Brevard County
What’s crazy is that we don’t even need fully autonomous self-driving vehicles to significantly curb the occurrence of distracted driving accidents. Motion sensors that alert drivers of hidden obstacles or impeding danger have already been in production in many automobiles. Google has taken this self-driving technology even further:
They have sensors designed to detect objects as far as two football fields away in all directions, including pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles—or even fluttering plastic shopping bags and rogue birds. The software processes all the information to help the car safely navigate the road without getting tired or distracted.
The number of accidents resulting from distracted driving may be staggering, but they are but one of many causes of traffic accidents. According to Google, 94% of car accidents involve human error, which results in over 1.2 million deaths worldwide every year. If you haven’t seen Google’s promo, check it out here:
Safety, Not Guaranteed
The number of accidents resulting from distracted driving may be staggering, but they are but one of many causes of traffic accidents. According to Google, 94% of car accidents involve human error, which results in over 1.2 million deaths worldwide every year. If you haven’t seen Google’s promo, check it out here:
If you consider the total number of accidents self-driving cars can prevent — including accidents caused by impaired drivers, distracted drivers, and general human error — one might wonder if there will be enough accidents to sustain the law practice of an average car accident attorney. The bloated injury law firms that you see represented on television and on billboards will have to significantly downsize, or at the very least, radically reinvent themselves.
Of course, there are plenty of accident lawyers out there that may be licking their lips at the prospective cases that self-driven cars may bring. While computers may not be prone to human error, they do crash and experience glitches and malfunctions. After all, any frequent GPS user knows that information provided isn’t always 100% accurate; and if you’re anything like The Office‘s Michael Scott, you may know it better than most.
Don’t Blame the Driver, Blame the Car?
Who will be liable for accidents caused by self-driven cars?
Most car accident litigation, whether arising from a rear-end collision or a high-speed crash, are the result of driver error or driver negligence; but if there’s no one behind the wheel, there’s no driver to sue. There’s little doubt that self-driving cars will significantly reduce the number of accidents, and consequently, the number of law suits to which they would lead.
But if there’s no driver, who’s at fault for the accident?
For attorneys, even with a significant decrease in auto accident cases, sometimes less can be more. In any accident case involving a self-driving car, the liability door will be swung wide open to a whole new cast of potential defendants, ranging from computer companies, to programmers and developers, and even mapping companies. All of these potential defendants could be held liable for injuries arising from a self-driven car injury under product liability law. If a manufacturing defect is identified as a cause of numerous self-driving car accidents, the potential for class-action suits is ripe.
Interesting Times Ahead…
Is it an exciting time to be alive, or what?
It’s a foregone conclusion that both lanes of traffic will be filled with self-driving cars in the near future. The drastic changes brought on by this new technology will undoubtedly make difficult work for legislatures, politicians, and lawyers everywhere; but the leisure and convenience it presents to drivers will be just wonderful for everyone else. I, for one, am pretty excited about not driving my car.
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