Could Driverless Cars Reduce Auto Accidents?

by gclatworthy on October 1, 2012

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(U.S. Law and generally) Many people who grew up watching the Back to the Future trilogy were disappointed when a new century came around and technology didn’t seem very futuristic. This is all likely about to change. Google has been in the process of developing a car that can drive itself with no human interaction, and Nevada just recently granted a license to one of these cars. This new advancement is not yet at a point where the layperson can afford the technology, but new technology is usually expensive at first. There may come a day when driver-less cars are the only vehicles on the roadway, and this could have serious safety and legal implications. 

Safety Issues

Many people wonder just how safe a car would be when its owner can get out and tell it to ‘go home’ and it will simply do so. The technology is actually extremely advanced and uses laser equipment to ‘know’ what is going on around it. Current cars that are being tested have driven 140,000 miles; one thousand of which had absolutely no driver interaction whatsoever. Our automobile accident lawyer New York contact added that the vehicles have only been in two accidents since their inception, but humans were at fault for both of these occurrences.

It is a shocking fact that ninety-three percent of all automobile crashes are either partly or wholly caused by human factors. There are around six million car accidents in the United States alone every year; which means 5.5 million accidents are due to some form of driver error. Removing the possibility of driver error could easily prevent millions of crashes every year; which would save untold numbers of lives.

Legal Implications

There are legal implications regarding driverless cars in both civil and criminal matters. Driverless cars, for instance, will easily reduce crime. Drag racing is illegal in most areas of the country, so this crime can easily be prevented when a car is programmed to follow the laws of the road. These cars would also remove around 112 million drunk drivers from the road every year. This removal would’ve resulted in over ten thousand people not losing their lives in 2010 alone.

Civil implications are also important to consider. Unless new laws are developed regarding these driverless cars, the manufacturers will likely be held responsible for any accident that is caused by these autonomous machines. These vehicles obviously have manual controls, and if the car is being controlled by a human during an accident, that person will obviously be held liable. If the car is handling itself, however, with no human control whatsoever, then only the manufacturer of the vehicle can be held liable. These cars are meant to be safe enough to drive themselves on the streets, so it is the duty of the manufacturers who make this commitment to follow through.

Driverless cars are undoubtedly the way of the future. There is absolutely no denying how great these cars can be and the immense possibilities that lay before a country that integrates the technology. Driverless cars have the possibility of saving hundreds of thousands of lives and reducing crimes involving motor vehicles. It would be hard to guarantee that these vehicles won’t cause accidents, so it is important for people to realize that liability is still attached to a person even when a robotic car causes the accident. All of the possible implications make one thing extremely obvious: driverless cars are going to change the way almost everything works. 

Georgina Clatworthy is a former legal blog editor and writer, and a current contributing author for the automobile accident lawyer New York-based group of Perecman PLLC. Their attorneys can help clear up some of the stress and confusion that comes with any auto accident claim.  Their proactive approach will ensure any claim is handled in a timely manner and your rights are protected throughout.

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