Who Is At Fault In A Driverless Car Accident?
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
On March 18, 2018, the United States finally experienced the first casualty of a car accident at the hands of a self-driving car. It happened, in Tempe, Arizona, to Elaine Herzberg, age 49 who was crossing the street sometime after 10 pm. She was not using a designated crosswalk, and was struck by a self-driving car owned and being tested by Uber, the ride-sharing service that operates in many major cities around the world.Self-driving cars are currently being tested in many parts of the United States by many different groups, including, right here in Florida, with the US military testing self-driving truck convoys. In addition, cars with some self-driving functions are already available on the market, and are currently being used by the public. Florida, in fact, has already experienced the first accident where a driver has died while in a self-driving vehicle.
But this brings up an interesting question. As we move forward into the future, self-driving cars are likely to become a normal sight on our roads. In the case where an accident occurs, who will be at fault if a driver wasn’t actually at the wheel?
The Arizona Incident
In the case of the Tempe, Arizona accident, there are numerous circumstances that muddy the waters in determining who was at fault, and the investigation is still ongoing at the time of this writing. The Uber self-driving car in question, while acting autonomously, did have a safety driver behind the wheel who was supposed to take control of the vehicle in the event of a malfunction. That driver was present and accounted for during the accident, which raises more questions about what exactly happened and why no one stepped in to take control. This means that, unlike some future models of self-driving car, there was still a steering wheel, accelerator and brakes present to take full, manual control.
Obviously, with the circumstances behind the accident still ongoing, it is difficult in this case to even understand who is at fault; the vehicle or the pedestrian. On the one hand, pedestrians by traffic law, are supposed to have the right of way when crossing the street. On the other hand, if it was at night, the pedestrian was not using a crosswalk, and if the pedestrian was doing something that many do, such as jaywalking from behind a vehicle where she would have been obscured, it would have been impossible for even a human driver to avoid a collision.
The Florida Incident
In the case of the Tesla fatality here in Florida, things remain murky. While the Tesla vehicle is not touted as a 100% completely autonomous driving car, it does have an “assisted driving” mode, where, especially on highways, drivers may be able to take advantage of the system to temporarily take their hands off the wheel if need be.
The car, however, does have warning systems in place advising drivers when they should take control of the vehicle. The investigation into this accident concluded that the driver was at least partially at fault for the accident. Not only did he ignore the warnings of the car to take control, he was not paying attention to the road. The Tesla car used a less comprehensive navigation system, relying primarily on cameras to “see” the road. Unfortunately for this driver, it was a cloudy, overcast day with white clouds, and a white truck got into his lane that the camera was unable to see. His car collided with it because he repeatedly ignored the warnings to take back control of his vehicle.
The Future
The convenience and usefulness of self-driving cars in our future is too great to ignore. These vehicles will allow people with handicaps and the elderly to regain some mobility and independence in their lives, even if they don’t qualify to hold a driver’s license. But it does mean that there will be new concerns and legal precedents that the courts and the police will have to decide up on in the future when accidents occur.
After all, if people ride in a car where it is physically impossible to take control of the vehicle, due to a lack of any manual control systems, they are now effectively passengers. In today’s current legal system, a passenger is generally not responsible or at fault in the event of an accident. But will this still hold if a person owns a driverless car and is in it when that car gets into an accident?
These and other considerations will have to be addressed by Florida car crash lawyers and other members of the legal profession. It may be that the final decision of fault will lie with the manufacturers of the car, or at the very least, the software that makes the driving decisions. It is a question that will need to be answered, and soon!