Autonomous vehicle technology is coming to a head. This means plenty of different things to plenty of different people. For personal injury lawyers? We are left to consider what becomes of personal injury cases. After all, when it comes down to two autonomous vehicles, finding liability could be quite simple. However, there are still people involved. In the end, we won’t know until the technology is part of the everyday roadway. In the meantime, we must weigh the pro’s and con’s…
Autonomous Vehicles: What becomes of personal injury cases?
As you likely know (or could assume) autonomous vehicles, or AV’s, are vehicles that drive by themselves. While this seems completely futuristic, the technology is actually on the roadways already in a few different places. Google is the first company to launch prototypes in California. In their campus, they are using the technology to shuttle employees from point A to B as a means of testing.
The main appeal of AV technology, is the ability to replace human error and make the process a bit more ‘foolproof’. But it does lead you to wonder, how exactlydo we know that AV’s will be able to do that? After all, technology, just like humans, is subject to failures every now and then.
The Pros and the Stats
Supporters of AV’s strongly believe that with this new technology, accidents will dramatically decrease. Additionally, researchers say that 90% of accidents occurs because of human error. So taking that out of the equation, supporters say AVs will provide a safer mode of transportation. So much so, some believe that future generations will no longer need to learn how to drive. Thus, possibly rendering personal injury lawyers and car insurance companies useless.
Studies and predictions show that with fewer accidents and injuries, as well as more transparency. A CDC reportfrom 2012 stated that more than 2.5 million people went to the hospital from accidents. Of those 2.5 million people, about 200,000 face hospitalization and overnight stays because of car accidents. The comes out to about 7,000 people per day in hospitals due to a traffic accident. One major advantage to AV’s is that, in an accident, there will be a larger amount of data you can pull from the vehicle. That way, you can more easily detect point of impact, along with other causes.
Of course, technology is not free from all kinds of errors. Many IT professionals can safely say technology has its own set of issues, such as software malfunctions and computer bugs. Other than that, the prediction of AV’s is that they will eliminate two of the leading causes of traffic accidents and fatalities: speeding and drunk driving.
The Traffic Accident Blame-Game: Who is at fault?
However, it is likely that a small portion of the population will not trust these non-human driving vehicles. And they will prefer to continue driving themselves. So, who is to blame if a human driver gets into an accident with an AV? Many predict that a lawsuit will shift from driver liability to product liability. If this shift occurs, that means manufacturing companies, software programmers, and any person with any involvement in building the vehicle can be liable in the event of an accident.
What does this mean for personal injury lawyers?
It means that those who only handle personal injury cases might have to get a little creative with their arguments. It is being predicted that the standard for finding fault in accidentswith autonomous vehicles will change to whether a human driver, or a comparable automated system, would have performed better than the automated system in question. Does this seem like a higher standard than typical negligence fault-based claims? In typical cases where negligence is found, the persons’ conduct 1) falls below the standard expected of a reasonable person, and 2) that person causes harm to another. Given that AVs are not yet part of every day society, it is difficult to say whether that standard is higher or the same.