Helpful Articles
Driverless Cars and Your Legal Rights
They are all over the news. They have already hit the
road. The big tech giants from Apple to Google to Uber have invested heavily in
their use. Driverless cars are here to stay. What's more, the companies
investing in these technologies have also developed and tested driverless
freights trucks. The downside to this exciting technology rests in its
potential for accidents. A handful of driverless car accidents have already
been reported in California. So, this begs the question:
What are your
rights if you are injured in an accident caused by a driverless car?
Given the present status of the law, if
you are injured and a driverless car causes the collision, you have the right
to be fully compensated for the same elements of damage that you are otherwise
entitled to as if you were in a traditional car accident. This compensation,
among other things, includes: medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering,
disability and disfigurement. And in the case of a loss of life, the elements
of a Wrongful Death case remain the same: loss of consortium, loss of society
and loss of economic support. Despite the similarities in recovery for
driverless auto accident victims, these cases will vary greatly in the manner
in which they are handled because establishing "proof of negligence"
will be a much more challenging task for any lawyer, especially a lawyer who is
not competent in product liability and automobile collision litigation.
In the typical driverless car scenario,
the owner of the vehicle is not in control of the vehicle at all. In fact, some
of the current models do not even have steering wheels or foot pedals. For
example, the fleet of driverless cars Google plans to put on the street will
have no steering wheels thereby eliminating a driver’s ability to maneuver the
vehicle. Traditional auto accident law, however, is based around the concept of
“driver error." Therefore, if no driver is at fault for your accident, who
will compensate you for your injuries?
In order to establish liability in these types of cases, so that injured parties can get compensated for their injuries, it has never been more important to hire the right lawyer for an injury case. The right law firm armed requires years of expertise, significant resources to retain qualified experts to establish complicated engineering analyses of accident cause, and the willingness to try cases unless fair compensation is paid by the responsible carrier.
Without human driver error as a focus of
litigation, your attorney must be capable of assessing whether a driverless
accident occurred due to software failure, hardware failure or defective
machinery. Legal experts predict the current Product Liability framework will
be able to handle the impending litigation. The question remains: Which law
firms will invest the time, expertise and resources to handle these type of
cases which will certainly cost significantly more to prepare for trial and
have a lower chance of success at trial. Under Product Liability law, a manufacturer
is held responsible when its’ products cause injury to person or property.
Product liability suits usually cite several theories of liability including,
but not limited to, strict liability, negligence, misrepresentation and breach
of warranty.
Emerging fields of law require lawyers to pull knowledge from several areas of the law. Driverless auto accident litigation will be no different. Accordingly, your lawyer must understand the complexity of product liability law along with the legal and factual intricacies of traditional auto accident law.
